The Tao clan's secret
by Kristine93
Summary: The greatest secret of the Tao clan is about to be revealed. An old curse is getting weaker. Ren is transforming while a strange girl from his past is comming for him. A six hundred year old story, a dark mystery... RenxOC ON HIATUS
1. Intro

Ren couldn't sleep. He hadn't been sleeping properly for a week or so. Something was bothering him. Something… or someone…

He sighed then sat up in the bed and rubbed his eyebrows. Why was this happening to him? He could almost hear his body screaming from exhaustion. Then why couldn't he fall asleep? Was he sick or something? But he had already asked Faust and after a very careful and quite annoying examination the creepy doctor had told him there was nothing wrong with him.

Well, if his body wasn't ill then what was happening to him? Was his mind the problem?

He looked at the luminous face of the alarm clock. It was about five o'clock. Well, here goes another sleepless night, huh? And he still hadn't figured out what was wrong…

* * *

'Are you OK, Ren?' Yoh asked as his friend entered the kitchen. A growl was all he got in return.

'I bet he hasn't slept again' Horo said while once again swallowing like a good pig anything he could find on the table.

'Shut up you baka!' Ren glared at him dangerously 'It's all Faust's fault! If he's such a great doctor why can't he find out what's wrong with me!'

'Well he gave you pills…'

'…that don't work.'

The others exchanged glances.

'Ren, we shouldn't tell you this but… Faust said those pills he gave you the last time could make a bear fall asleep. ' Yoh said carefully.

'Well, they don't work on me!' Ren spitted and started eating.

'You know you look different. ' Anna suddenly said with her usual cold tone 'Aside from the tired look on your face.'

'What are you saying woman?' Ren raised an eyebrow.

'When is the last time you looked yourself in the mirror?' she stood up and walk to him then made him stand up.

Anna looked at him up and down. His hair wasn't pointy now, it was hanging freely almost touching his shoulders. But that wasn't new. It had been that way for four days. Though they hadn't gotten used to it yet.

'You're taller.' She said calmly.

'Yeah, so what?' Ren folded his hands and thought about all the clothes he recently had buy because of that.

Even though he was almost sixteen Ren was still a little shorter than Yoh and Horo Horo. But now, as Horo stood up and stood next to Ren it was very much obvious that the Tao was at least two inches taller than the Ainu.

'What the hell… You can't grow up so much in a week!' Horo shouted and Ren glared at him.

'And what's that?' Anna suddenly grabbed hs hair and pulled it.

'WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING YOU STUPID BITCH! LET GO!'

She ignored him as she looked carefully at the inky colored cluster in her hand. She then pulled out a blood-red lock.

'What the… huh? When did you color your hair? ' Horo asked.

'What are you talking about baka!' Ren finally released himself from Anna's grip and walk to the nearest mirror everybody following him. He looked at the crimson lock and his eyes widened with realization.

'Fuck! She's coming here!' he shouted and run to his room.

'Who's she?' Yoh called after him. No answer came, so he and Horo followed Ren. They didn't bother knocking as usual, since the door was wide open and came in. The Tao was searching wildly for something in the cupboard.

'Fuck, fuck, FUCK! Where is it?' he finally pulled out a small box with a large golden dragon on the top and opened it. Then he pulled out a pendant with the yin and yang symbol on it. It was glowing faintly.

'Ren…'

'No mistake. The curse is getting weaker. That's why I couldn't sleep. That's why I'm changing. And the lock… I should've thought of it sooner… '

'What curse? Guys, what's going on?' Pirika entered the room. She was wet from the bath she had just taken.

'REN! WHO'S COMING?' Horo finally shouted.

Ren looked at them blankly and a small but quite creepy smile crossed his lips.

'Destiny.'

* * *

Okey, guys, this is my first story. I have a hard time with the Japanese names since I've only watched the English version of Shaman king. I'm not English so it's even harder to me to right in English so correct me if I have any mistakes, please. 


	2. What's going on?

I made some corrections to this chapter. I hope it's a little better now.

* * *

'REN! WHO'S COMING?' Horo finally shouted.

Ren looked at them blankly and a small but quite creepy smile crossed his lips.

'Destiny.'

* * *

The moment he said that, the phone downstairs rang. Then someone picked it up and Anna's voice was heard.

'Anna speaking. Who is it? ' she paused to hear the answer 'Jun? What's going on? You sound a little… Wait a second…' she then shouted at the top of her lungs 'TAO! COME DOWN! YOUR SISTER'S ON THE PHONE!'

Ren reacted as if there was a fire in the house. He ran pass Yoh and the two siblings and almost knocked them down. He was in front of the phone in what seemed to be less than a second and grabbed the receiver.

'Jun? ...I know… Yes… It's glowing… I'm not sure about that but… Yes, she'll be here soon… Yeah.' Ren gave the receiver back to Anna 'She wants to speak with you.'

'Why didn't she do it before?' the blond murmured but took it from him. They talked a minute or so then Anna hung up and looked at the others, who were already standing beside Ren and waiting.

'Jun'll come as soon as she can.' The Itako said calmly 'So Yoh and Horo better start cooking for lunch. Pirika – dress and help them. Ren comes with me – we need to have a little chat.'

* * *

'… And they're still inside. Talking.' Horo finished miserably. His sister nodded slightly and continued to kill the onion on the chopping board.

'Who is this Destiny I wonder. Ren has never mentioned her before…' Yoh said while trying to handle a smoking saucepan.

'Come to think of it Ren hardly ever talks about his past.' Pirika murmured.

'And that lock… This is way too creepy. It makes me hungry…' Horo added and ran to the fridge.

Yoh and Pirika shook their heads condescendingly.

'He'll never change…' the Asakura said. For less than a minute the other boy was done eating and half of the fridge was empty.

'Done. What were we talking about?' he asked with an innocent smile.

Suddenly the door to Anna's room opened and Ren stormed out of there with a determined expression on his face. He didn't look very happy and neither did Anna.

'I need you to tell me! Ren, come back here!' she called after him.

He simply ignored her and went straight to the front door and opened it widely. There stood a girl, her hand raised and ready for knocking.

'Hello Jun.' he greeted calmly as if he knew she had been standing there.

'Jun?' Yoh blinked. He could hardy recognize her. And it seemed the others had the same problem. Her hair was suddenly all white and wavy, almost reaching her waist. Her eyes were a bit bigger than usual and a deep shade of green. Her skin was much paler than normal and her lips were crimson.

'Do you think En knows?' Jun immediately asked as she walked inside with a very stressed look on her face. Her brother sighed, then took her to the living-room. The others exchanged glances and followed silently.

'I'm quite sure.' Ren ran his fingers through his hair 'But I really don't know why this is happening. I mean… The curse was quite powerful.'

'But we got stronger too, didn't we? And… We don't how she's doing. May be she found a way to remove the curse…' Jun reminded him.

'I still can't believe I found out so late. I mean – I grew up so suddenly. That's not right. So not right!' he shook his head and sighed. 'The family won't be too happy.'

'You know perfectly well the Tao clan isn't our biggest problem. There are other people…' Jun murmured consciously emphasizing on the phrase "other people".

'We can defend ourselves.' Ren frowned at her.

'Yes, we can. But what about your friends?' for the first time she looked at the others who were silently standing nearby and trying to figure out what was going on.

'We'll figure something out. And from now on we have to be careful.'

'You say this now but you know what'll happen when she comes.'

For a moment it seemed as if his eyes flashed red but a second later it was gone.

'I'm not like this anymore.'

'We'll see.'

'Hello? Is there any chance for us to find out what's going on in here?' Anna finally interrupted.

'Yeah! And what's with the glowing pendant and this appearance of yours?' Horo added and folded his arms.

'It's a long story.' Jun said softly 'Longer than you can imagine.'

* * *

Well, nothing really happens in this chapter but I don't have time right now.

Thank you PandaYumi7 and Sorrel-Piedra for your reviews.


	3. Story

'It's a long story.' Jun said softly 'Longer than you can imagine.'

* * *

Flashback: 

_600 years ago…_

_A tall man with a black cloak with a hood was walking slowly down the street. His steps were quiet almost as if he wasn't touching the ground. Many people looked at him strangely; some of them were even avoiding going near him. But it didn't seem as if he cared. He was smiling slightly, though a little creepy and was softly humming a childish song to himself._

_As he was walking to the darkest part of the village, the people around him become less and less until he was the only one on the muddy narrow street. It didn't bother him. He even seemed to grow more and more happy and excited with every passing moment. As if he was going to meet an old friend or relative._

_He finished humming and a soft laugh escaped his lips. He then stopped and sighed. There was nobody around him. Only old abandoned houses. Or was there?_

_'Eliot.' a voice said and another figure with a cloak and hidden face stepped out of the shadows. 'Late. As usual.'_

_'Didn't bother hurrying. We all have… plenty and plenty of time. ' the first man, Eliot, purred 'Actually, Leon, we have The Time itself captured in our hands… '_

_'Enough with the useless talking.' another eight figures came out of the shadows – faces hidden, footsteps unheard._

_'What is the meeting for? And why are there only ten of us?' a firm voice from the group asked._

_'You called as Eliot. Explain yourself.' Leon said and the others nodded slightly in agreement._

_'Oh, you all sound so moody. No cheering for the boss?' Eliot laughed again._

_'Stop calling yourself a leader. You aren't!'_

_'But so far no one had ever won against me. Or do you want to try?' Eliot's voice suddenly became threatening and the others went quiet. 'Better. Now back to business. I called you because we need to… get certain boy and girl.'_

_'Why certain?'_

_'I saw them few days ago. And I liked them. We need more like them. Strong, resourceful, smart. Because of the lack of this kind of people, our kind disappears. It's why we get killed, it's why we get less and less with every passing day…'_

_'Fine, we'll get them. Do you know where they are? Do you know their names?'_

_'I do.' Eliot smiled brightly and his soft laugh filled the air once again 'They are from the Tao clan. Ren and Jun.'_

End of flashback.

'I don't get it…' Horo said confused as the Tao siblings finished the first part of their story. 'How can that be? 600 years ago? Is this story about you or some of your ancestors? And how do you know this? Who told you?'

'Too many questions!' Ren shouted and the Ainu shut up. The Tao rubbed his eyebrows and sighed. He just knew it wasn't the best idea to start telling them such a long story. All of them were looking so confused. Even Anna!

'When is this going to end!' he murmured and Jun patted him lightly on the back.

'It's not that bad!' she said 'We just have to… tell them lots of things... and hope they'll understand.'

'Yeah! Everything will be just fine! Don't worry Ren!' Yoh promised and grinned widely which only made Ren growl and roll his eyes.

'But… What about this Destiny-girl?' Pirika asked carefully.

The moment the words escaped her lips, a loud whirr was heard from outside.

'It seems that there will be no peace and quiet today.' Anna murmured coldly as a black motorcycle entered the yard and stopped near the door. A figure, dressed in black trousers, leather black gloves and black long-sleeved shirt got off it.

Ren suddenly paled and without a word ran straight to the front door and opened it. Yoh and the Ainu siblings immediately ran after him, eager to find out what caused his reaction. Only Anna and Jun calmly stood up and walked to the door.

The figure looked at Ren through the helmet. A sheath with a sword inside was hanging on the figure's left thigh.

'It seems this really is the right place. My senses are still working perfectly…' the rider slowly said and removed the helmet.

* * *

Okeeey. So here's the third chapter. Tell me what do you think. Is it good? Is it worthy finishing it? I'm still not sure with the pairing... 


	4. Ian

'It seems this really is the right place. My senses are still working perfectly…' the rider said and removed the helmet.

* * *

'Ian.' Ren said slowly and frowned. 

'Not happy to see me? Such a pity!' Ian, the rider, smiled. He had grey eyes, blonde hair and pale skin and as he smiled his unusual long fangs captured their attention. 'Your transformation isn't over yet. Huh… That's why it was so hard to find you. Oh! And what's that? Four humans? Why are you still wasting your time? You know what to do to finish the transformation. It's the last step.'

'Uh… Ren, what's he talking about?' Yoh asked but got no reply.

'Did Eliot send you?' the Tao asked.

'Hell he did!' Ian leaned against the motorcycle, pulled out a cigarette and lit it. 'He found out about your little return… He wants you to play on his team, you know… You and your pretty sister. So… What are you waiting for? Get it over with and lets go.'

'I'm not coming with you.' Ren answered firmly .

'Why not? Come on! Are still like "I don't take part in any groups, I'm by myself, blah-blah-blah…". That's very unreasonable. Eliot will get angry.'

He let out a thin stream of smoke.

'I can't go back without you two. So, I'll just have to stay outside until you get out of that house. The sun doesn't bother me. You know that. It's my gift and that's why Eliot sent me.'

'You don't want to mess with me, believe me.' Ren threatened.

'Yeah, I don't… But until your transformation is over, you don't stand a chance against me. Nor do your shaman friends. And you can't stay inside forever… unlike me. I can stay here as long as I like. So it's your decision. Complete the transformation and fight me or… you can try to fight me like this and lose. Of course we can skip all that if you guys just come with me. Anyway… Take your time. No need to hurry.'

Ren growled angrily and his eyes flashed red but then he felt Jun's hand on his shoulder and calmed down a bit.

'He can't come inside. That's why he wants to get you outside. Don't listen to him. Well think of something.' She said and pulled him back inside the house, closing the door.

'Are you guys sure he won't come inside?' Pirika asked as they once again want into the living-room.

'Yes, we are.' Jun said and pulled the curtains so they won't see Ian through the window. 'He's not allowed.'

'If you say so.' Yoh agreed a bit hesitantly.

'What was he talking about, Ren? What do you need to do to finish your transformation? And what gift?' Anna questioned. He looked at her strangely as if he was fighting with himself and then looked away.

About 9pm.

'This guy's still there.' Horo whispered a bit shocked as he pulled slightly the curtains and looked through the window. 'He _wasn't_ kidding.'

'What were you thinking? That he'll just go away?' Ren asked irritated.

'Well yeah. I was hoping.' Horo shrugged and grinned.

'Believe me that guy _is_ serious.'

'And what are we going to do? Stay inside forever?' Anna frowned dangerously 'You have to think of something! It's all your fault that we got into this mess!'

'We can call the police…' Yoh suggested but Ren shook his head violently.

'Are you out of your mind?! He'll kill them all!' the Tao shouted.

'Then… How about we handle him?' Horo said hesitantly.

'We can't. Only Jun or I can handle him and only if we are fully transformed. He'll kill you.' Ren seriously said and Anna frowned.

'Are you trying to tell me that my Yoh isn't strong enough to handle a single man?' she hissed dangerously and everybody except for Ren who didn't move a muscle shrank.

'Yoh can easily handle a man. The only problem is that Ian isn't a man.' The Tao explained. 'And he's also a professional killer. His gift makes him impossible to kill for a shaman.'

'What is that suppose to mean?' Anna was getting really irritated.

'It means that the shamans are not the only powerful creatures in the world.' Was the only reply she got.

'So there is no way to make him go away?' Pirika asked.

'Nope. No way, indeed!' Jun answered as she was playing with her long silver hair.

'Can't we like… Shoot him? Or get him drunk or…'

'No.'

'So we are…'

'Stuck here! YES!'

'But he needs to eat, doesn't he?'

'He doesn't need to eat as much as we do and he can manage to capture a bird or something if he's really hungry. He's well trained. A professional. I told you so.' Ren sighed.

'What are we going to do now? I mean... If there's nothing else...' Pirika paused for a moment 'Can we like… learn the rest of the story?'

The Tao siblings exchanged glances then continued the story.

Flashback:

_'I'M TIRED JUN! I DON'T WANT TO DO THIS ANYMORE! AND FOR WHAT? FOR SOME STUPID TOURNAMENT!'_

_'Ren, calm down! Please, just…'_

_'Just what! Everyday we train until we can barely move and you tell me to CALM DOWN!'_

_'There's nothing we can do! Ren, please wait!'_

_A boy and a girl about thirteen and fifteen years were walking through the crowd. Ren and Jun. The Tao heirs. Sibling, who had to continue the line of the great family and learn to be obedient. Though it was really hard for a boy as wild and headstrong as Ren to be ready to do everything they told him to._

_'Where are you going, Ren?! Wait!' Jun shouted and managed to grab his arm. He stopped, then sighed and turned around to face her. His golden eyes were now sad almost desperate._

_'But we can't run away, can we? There is nowhere to go.'_

_'No, there isn't. We are alone. You know that.' She said quietly. 'Now let's go home.'_

_'I don't want to.'_

_'But we have no choice. They'll find as and bring us back anyway.'_

_She then led him out of the crowd and into a more deserted street. It was getting dark. They had to hurry so they decided to take a short cut trough the darkest part of the village. They weren't afraid because they were strong enough to take care of themself._

_They turned round the corner and suddenly stopped. Ten figures in cloaks and with hoods were standing there as if they had been waiting for them. The first one smiled under his hood and purred:_

_'Hello kids.'_

End of Flashback.

Ren suddenly stood up. His eyes flashed red and a small smile appeared on his face.

'What's up, Ren?' Yoh asked. The Tao looked at him and softly replyed:

'She's here.'

* * *

Chapter four! I'm waiting for your reviews. 


	5. Destiny

'What's up, Ren?' Yoh asked. The Tao looked at him and softly replied:

'She's here.'

* * *

Ren then walked to the door and opened it. A girl a little shorter than him was standing a meter or so away from the doorstep. One of her hands was in her pocket and the other one was playing with a bunch of car keys. On her neck was a glowing pendant similar to the one Ren had in his room. She had long wavy ink-colored hair and long-lashed deep blue eyes. Her lips were crimson – just like Jun's and were strongly contrasting with her pale skin. She was wearing black T-shirt with golden flower on it and jeans with similar decoration. 

As she saw him her eyes widened and she gasped as if she was trying really hard not to burst into tears.

'It's been so long…' she managed to whisper. Ren just stood speechless, his eyes a bit bigger than usual and his lips lightly parted

'Can I come inside?' she asked.

'Anna…' Ren begun but the Itako already knew.

'You're welcome.'

The moment she walked inside, Ren grabbed her and kissed her.

'What the… Can I throw up now, please?' Horo asked while looking quite disgusted at the scene.

'Oh my God… Ren's making out… ' Yoh's eyes almost looked like pancakes.

'Ohhh… That's soooo sweet!' Pirika cried out and sighed dreamily.

The kiss the two shared was hardly gentle. It was wild and passionate. They couldn't have enough from one another and it seemed as if they could kiss for hours without noticing anything around them. Her fingers were in his hair, his hands hold her tight to him and even as they ran out of air, they didn't stop.

She felt a cold wavy running through her body then suddenly a hot one even stronger than the first. A little more and she would faint. But she didn't care…

Oh, how he missed the feeling of her lips. Her sweet, full lips… How he missed her passion, her fire, her wildness… He wished he could stop the time and hold her like this forever.

'Ohhh… That's cute.' Ian's voice said and the blonde chuckled softly as the couple broke apart and glared at him. 'I knew it was worth it to let her be. She didn't even notice me. How sweet… her transformation isn't finished as well. Eliot wants her too, Ren. Explain her everything.'

'What's going on?' Destiny asked and looked at the Tao. He closed the door and led her inside. Then present her to the others and explained her the little 'Ian-problem'.

'So we are trapped here?' Destiny said slowly. Ren's arm was around her shoulders and most of the time Yoh and Horo couldn't keep themselves from string at it. Was this girl his girlfriend? REN HAD A GIRLFRIEND? Oh, God, this was sooo messed up!

'BINGO!' Horo shouted a bit stupidly.

'I have a question… How did you remove the curse?' Ren asked and raised an eyebrow.

'You know grandma Ai… She put the curse. She was a great sorceress and her curses are mostly irremovable. You know they left me on her to teach me to become a sorceress as well. We actually became very close. Ai knew I wasn't happy like this so in her last moments she left me an old parchment that said how to remove the curse. Well, our part of the curse. Not all of it. It took more than six months to finally make the magic work… Then I used the pendant to find you.'

'You did a great job.' Ren kissed her softly for a few seconds, then let go.

'Wow, wow, WOW! Wait a second! What's going on here? What's with the 'kissing' part!?' Horo almost shouted. 'And aren't we forgetting that there is a strange pshycho outside? Huh? And once again: WHAT'S WITH THE "KISSING" PART?!?'

'Don't worry. They'll act much different when they're fully transformed.' Jun said while polishing her nails in her dress 'We all will be much different.'

'Look! We need to discuss this.' Anna said firmly. 'You have to tell us this story of yours… Everything. And mostly - what do you need to transform in whatever you need to transform to kick this Ian guy out of _my_ yard!'

'Okkkeeyyy… ' Jun paused for a moment. 'I don't think it's a good idea for you to know that and especially the last part and…'

'STORYTIME!' Horo shouted and everybody looked at him strangely. 'What? Did I say something wrong?'

'Well, may be we really should tell them the rest…' Ren suggested as Destiny played with his bood-red lock.

Jun sighed.

Flashback:

_'Ren… Ren… REN! WAKE UP!' Jun's voice made him open his eyes and sat up. His head was aching like hell and not only his head. He felt a throbbing pain in his neck. He slowly lifted his hand and lightly brushed his fingertips against the swollen wound. It was small but deep. _

_Ren tried really hard to remember what had happen but it was all blurry. The one who spoke to them… they called him Eliot… __he could move objects without touching them… Was he a teklekinesis!?... He shoved Ren against the wall. Then pain… and blood… And…_

_He looked at his sister. Her clothes were torn on her left shoulder and revealed a wound, similar to his. And her front was all covered in blood. Ren looked down… his was as well…_

_'They… bit us?' Ren almost smiled. It sounded so stupid!_

_'They were vampires, Ren.' Jun answered seriously. 'You know what that means?'_

_'They turned us into vampires as well?' he asked carefully and she nodded._

_There was silence for a moment, then he suddenly started laughing. His sister was staring at him dumbfounded. What was so funny? Their clothes were soaking with blood, they had wounds on their necks and they were about to change into demons! That was totally NOT funny!_

_'Ren, what is wrong with you? Stop it! This is serious!' She shouted and he slowly calmed down._

_'Oh my God! Don't you see? Jun, this is our chance! Our freedom ticket! We are no more humans! We don't need to train to become shamans!' he said excitedly._

_'But we know nothing about this vampire stuff! Nothing! We can't…'_

_'Don't be a coward! Are you so used of being controlled that you don't want to live otherwise?' Ren raised an eyebrow 'And what's that?'_

_There was a piece of string around his neck and a folded paper was hanging on it. He took it off and unfolded the paper. It was some sort of note._

_**There're no demons under the age of seventeen. You'll be one of us soon enough. Every vampire has a gift. Ask permission to get inside someone's house. Beware of the sun. **_

_**Eliot**_

_'That's weird.' Ren commented. His sister agreed. They looked around themselves. They were sitting in the shadows, but it was already morning outside. Ren stood up and was about into the sunlight when Jun pulled him back._

_'What's the matter?' he blinked._

_'May be we shouldn't. Look at the note.' She whispered._

_'Are you suggesting we stay here all day long? Look, I'm just going to try if the light is really harmful…' then, before she could answer walked out of the shadows. He could feel the sunlight warming his skin. But nothing else. Suddenly he noticed something strange. A fly was sitting about seven meters away on some wall. And he could not only see it, he could __**hear**__ it. And… some woman… walking down the next street… he could hear her blood pumping in her veins… He stood still for moment breathing a bit harder than usual. _

_'What's the matter?' Jun walked to him, forgetting her fear to get burn. Then she understood… 'Oh my god!'_

_She touched his arm by intuition. Ren looked at her and blinked._

_'Are you… shorter than me?' he asked slowly.__ Her eyes widened. Not only she was shorter than him now, but she was taller than before as well. She could say, since her dress was a now revealing part of her legs that it wasn't the day before._

_'What did the note say about demons under the age of seventeen?' Jun questioned._

_'That there're none.'_

_'I wonder if this is what Eliot meant when he wrote it. Do you think we got older... Like seventeen or something!?' She paused for a second and then continued a bit more firmly 'We need to get home.'_

_'Are you out of your mind? We are not of any use to them now. I don't even want to think what they're about to do when they find out what had happened to us…'_

_'We are just going to snuck inside and get some clothes and may be money! We can't just walk around with torn clothes soaking with blood.'_

_'Fine! But if they catch us it's all your fault!'_

* * *

_'Sometimes I really hate you.' Ren hissed as he looked at the giant stone wall in front of him. It was night but he and Jun could see perfectly fine. They kind of expected that. _

_'Why am I suppose to do that once again? I despite this house and everything in it! '_

_'Chill out! I think this is about to be fun!' Jun giggled and licked her fangs that had appeared soon after they woke up. It seemed that the physical transformation was also connected with the mind as well, because she had started to act really self-confident and Ren could feel the same happening with him… only he so much hated this damn house that he couldn't quite relax. It sent shivers down his spine no matter how he tried to stay calm._

_He looked at the ivies that had covered the wall and jumped as high as he could, hoping to catch a trunk… only he somehow managed to jump over the whole wall. He landed softly and soundlessly on the grass and stood up a bit surprised of what he had just done. A smiled slowly made it's way on his face and he barely kept himself from shouting cheerfully._

_Jun landed next to him and her reaction was quite like his. They exchanged glances then ran towards the old dark gigantic house. A few minutes later the siblings came back._

_'Wow, that was actually… easy.' Jun said and threw her bag over her shoulder._

_'Yeah, easier than I thought. Did you leave the note?'_

_'Uh huh, on the table in the living-room. They won't be too happy… Especially since I took some money as well.'_

_'How much?'_

_'Can't say. Everything I could find.'_

_Ren laughed._

_'And what's that?' Jun asked as she nodded to a small box with a golden dragon on the top._

_'You'll find out some day. Now let's go. Japan's waiting for us.'_

_On the morning a girl with long white wavy hair and green eyes and a boy with golden eyes, inky hair with a single crimson lock in it were traveling to Japan. The past – left behind. They didn't care for anything anymore. They didn't care that their family was angrier than ever, nor that they were no more humans but immortal demons. All they cared about was… having fun._

End of flashback

'Ren… are you trying to tell me that…' Horo looked at him strangely.

'I'm six hundred years old. Yes.' The Tao replied the unasked question.

'And you… are actually demons.'

'YES!' Jun was getting annoyed.

'But that still doesn't answer the question what are you suppose to do to become fully transformed.' Anna noted.

Ren, Jun and Destiny exchanged glances then Destiny said.

'We need to suck human blood.'

* * *

How was that? Was it too boring? PLEASE, REVIEW! 


	6. Chop sticks and transformation

Ren, Jun and Destiny exchanged glances then Destiny said.

'We need to suck human blood.'

* * *

Ten seconds later: 

'I knew this wasn't a good idea.' Ren sighed. On his face there was expression that showed nothing but pure boredom. Destiny took his hand. She knew he was more stressed than he looked.

'DON'T YOU DARE COME NEAR ME OR ELSE…' Horo was standing a few meters away, holding a chop stick. He had dragged Pirika behind his back to protect her.

'Horo, if I wanted to suck your damn blood filled with disgusting trash I would've done it by now!' Ren hissed.

'My blood isn't disgusting!' the male Ainu argued 'It's perfectly fine and I know you want it!'

'It's disgusting thanks to all that crap you eat!'

'This is no good! We're stuck with three vampires inside the house and there's one outside!' Horo was starting to panic and that really getting on Ren's nerves.

'SHUT UP! I told you if I wanted to suck your blood I would've done it by now!' he stood up, walked straight to the trembling Horo, took the chop stick he was holding for protection and snapped it. Then hit the Ainu on the head and went back to his place.

'I feel better now.' Ren commented and his sister patted him on the back.

'I think Ren's telling the truth.' Yoh said. Anna had dragged him a few meters away from the vampires as well but they still looked a lot calmer than the Ainu siblings.

'Are you insane? We are like tasty snack for them!' Horo was now searching for another chop stick.

'Look I would never hurt any of you! ' Ren hissed.

'How can we believe you! You lied us all along!' Horo once again pointed a chop stick at him.

Ren growled, his irises went red and the chop stick in Horo's hand suddenly broke in two.

'What did you expect me to do? To tell you I was a 600-year-old blood-sucker? To tell you that Jun and I were the black sheep of the family? That for centuries the Tao clan tried to kill us and get rid of the shame we brought to them? Well, forgive me for not being eager to tell you this interesting fairy tale! I wonder what would've you done on my place! '

With that Ren's eyes went back to their normal golden color and he looked away. His jaw was tightly clenched.

'I… Well… um… uh…' Horo stammered totally forgetting the fact that the chop stick had broken by itself. 'Ok, you're right… I just… uh… I'm sorry, ok!'

'Forget it.' Ren murmured.

'Still, it's a little strange that you insisted that vampires don't exist during the 'Boris' story. Remember?' Yoh said.

'If he was a vampire I would've felt it. That's why I said that.' The Tao answered.

'All right! That's enough! They are not going to eat us so we need to sit down and think of something.' Anna immediately dragged Yoh back and the Ainu siblings followed her.

'I'm not going to suggest anything. I don't want another chop stick pointed at me.' Ren announced.

'It seems that only a vampire can handle the Ian dude outside. So… We really need to find a way to transform those three.' Pirika told the others. Anna nodded and for a couple of seconds didn't say anything then turned her gaze towards Ren.

'How much blood do you need? All of it?' the Itako questioned.

'No, not all of it. About three liters'.' He answered.

'Three liters! Where do you put so much blood?' Horo asked dumbfounded.

'It's needed because of the transformation. Usually we don't need so much.' Deatiny explained.

'Does it have to be from one person?' Anna continued to ask.

'No, it doesn't. Why?' Jun raised an eyebrow.

'There four of us. May be if you drink a little bit from every one of us it could be enough to transform one of you.' Anna said slowly.

'750ml from each if I'm correct?' Pirika added after a moment of silence 'That won't make too much damage I guess…'

'You all have to agree to this or we won't accept.' Jun insisted.

The four humans exchanged glances.

'I guess there is no other way…' Horo had to admit.

* * *

A few minutes later… 

On the table they had putted bandages, a bowl of water, some medicine, chocolates, sugar, honey and biscuits.

'Ok, who's going to kick Ian's ass?' Destiny asked the Tao siblings.

' "Rock, paper, scissors"? 'Jun suggested. The other two shrugged and put out their hands.

After a few games Destiny won. Her eyes went big for a couple of seconds, then a gigantic smiled appeared on her beautiful pale face and she started whooping like a child that found a big candy.

'You ready guys?' Ren asked while Destiny was slowly calming down.

'I guess so…' Yoh nodded a bit hesitantly 'At least I'm going to eat chocolate after that… and have a nap as well.'

'I don't have to put a spell on them, right?' Destiny asked.

'What spell?' Pirika asked a bit worried.

'When a vampire bites somebody and doesn't kill him or her, he puts a spell on the victim so the human won't remember what had happened.' Ren paused for a moment 'You know there is lots of stuff about vampires you don't know. Like the fact we are not afraid of garlic or crosses. Or churches. Most of us can't stand the sunlight but there are some exceptions like me, Jun, Destiny and that idiot Ian. And we can't come inside someone's house without permission.'

'That was quite interesting. But I read about something even more interesting. A very famous group of vampires.' Anna looked at Ren strangely 'The leader had a nickname – The Dark One if I'm correct. Quite a legend he was… Most of the demons were afraid of him.'

For a second Ren stood dumbfounded, staring at Anna. His usually pale skin became even whiter. But then a small rare smile appeared on Anna's face.

'I'll tell you the story some day.' She assured him.

* * *

Ian was getting really bored. There was nothing interesting here to do and he was running out of cigarettes fast. He sighed and lit the next cigarette and drew at it then let out a pretty good smoke circle. 

"Such a waste of time…" he thought as he remembered how many problems Ren's stubbornness had cost in the past. "Still… He is so damn strong when he's a vampire. That gift of his…" Ian shivered slightly.

He drew at the cigarette once again. He loved smoking. He smoked everywhere at every time and if he was human it would've killed him for a couple of years.

"On of the good stuff when you're undead…" he admitted to himself and smiled at the cigarette.

Suddenly the front door opened and Destiny walked out of the house. Her walk was confident and fast. When she looked at him he saw in her eyes something different. A spark that hadn't been there before. The girl smirked at him, baring her long white fangs.

'I hope she can do it… ' Horo said tiredly lying and ready to fall asleep as well as the other three humans.

'Don't worry… She'll be fine.' Ren assured him. He and Jun were standing near the door and watching with expectation as Destiny put her clawed hands on her hips.

'Hello, darling. Ready to face Hell?' she purred and her eyes went crimson.

* * *

One word: Review! 


	7. Fight

'Hello, darling. Ready to face Hell?' she purred and her eyes went crimson.

* * *

Ian blinked, then drew one last time at his cigarette and threw it away. 

'That I didn't expect. You actually killed the poor humans!' he exclaimed. He then noticed Ren and Jun standing near the door and raised an eyebrow 'Oh, I see. So you're hiding while your girlfriend's doing the dirty work, huh Ren? And your transformation isn't over yet. Pathetic!'

Ren growled but Jun grabbed his shoulder and squeezed it.

'Don't let him get to you!' she warned, her nails painfully digging into his skin.

'Hey, Ian, honey, a little attention please!' Destiny called, a very annoying smirk on her face.

Ian frowned then pulled out his sword and stepped forward.

'What was your gift again?' she asked. He didn't answer but a second later his sword and hand were wrapped in flames. Destiny nodded with approval. A pyronetic.

"I can't kill her. And don't even want to think of what Eliot will do to me if I do so… I have to knock her out. Or wound her. But nothing else." Ian thought. The other thing that was torturing his mind was Destiny's gift. No matter how hard he tried he couldn't remember what it was. She was going to catch him by surprise. His only advantage was the fact she hadn't been using her powers for a long.

'I'm giving you the first move. Don't waste it.' the girl said. His own eyes became crimson as he attacked her with his sword. She simply moved away and the fire blade missed her by few centimeters. However it didn't seem to bother her at all. She easily slipped out of the next attack, no matter that it came immediately after the first one. She then tried to trip him but he jumped and charged at her, slightly scratching and burning her shoulder as she moved away a bit unsuccessfully.

'Not bad.' Destiny had to admit 'You're quite fast.'

'You've seen nothing yet.' Ian assured her as leaped high above her, his sword above his head. She looked at him strangely, her head slightly tilted and suddenly he felt something wrapping itself around his ankle and harshly pulling him down on the ground.

'Oh! So that's your gift!' Ian looked at what had pulled him down. It was a thick dark green stalk of some sort of damp plant that just came out of the small fissure in the otherwise soft ground. And it was tightly wrapped around his leg. Another few stalks coiled around his wrist, waist and neck like cold snakes. He glared at them and his body suddenly burst into flames, turning the poor thing into dust.

'Got anything else, sweetheart?' he asked as he stood up and went to his previous not-so-flamely-state.

'Yes, I have.' Destiny answered, holding a sword in each hand. Ian growled softly. She must had taken them from somewhere – her car probably; he had seen her park outside the yard – while he was distracted with her damn plants.

Her expression was now serious. Non of the previous playfulness. Only that spark… that strange spark in her crimson eyes.

He attacked her with all his might. He knew she was a strong opponent. Destiny blocked the attack with the two swords but her feet dug into the ground as she did so. Her knuckles were white and a drop of sweat rolled down her temple but she didn't move even a step. She stood her ground.

Ian smirked as he pushed himself back and a second later she assaulted him. He had to admit she was a really good fighter. She was fast and strong. And when he hurt her she didn't move a muscle. For no more than two minutes they Destiny managed to wound his right side quite bad and he injured her left hip.

'This is getting boring!' Destiny complained like a little child, then pushed him away and before he could do anything she spun around and kicked him in the face. It made him fall, but he stood immediately and glared at her. He touched his bleeding nose. He was a vampire and it was going to heal really fast, but it still irritated him.

Ian's hand burst into flames and a moment later a big fire stream came out of it and towards the girl. Destiny looked at him dumbfounded before disappearing into the flames.

'Oh, crap! I totally forgot I didn't have to hurt her badly!' Ian thought and his hand went back to normal. He knew he had hit her. Or at least he had hit something…

'Destiny?' he carefully said. 'Are you there?'

He stepped forward carefully. He had turned the yard into a burning Hell. And there was something large and round where the girl had been standing that was slightly burning.

Jun looked at Ren worriedly.

'She's fine… right?' she asked softly. He just smirked, not looking at her.

'Sure. But I bet she's really angry.' he replied.

"Yes, I'm here you fool!" a voice came from the burning round thing. A moment later a blade cut through the top of it and Destiny came out of it. 'You've burned my plants for a second time this evening! And look at the yard! You've ruined it! All the grass and flowers! YOU KILLED THEM!' she shouted. The thick shield of stalks that had wrapped around her a moment before the flames could reach her had protected her but she was still very, very irritated.

"She sounds like my mom…" Ian unwittingly thought. But a second later he was too busy defending himself from her wild attacks to reason that thought.

'YOU… ARE… SOOOOO… GOING TO HELL!' she shouted before a giant root wrapped around his legs making him fall. Its sharp thorns reached his skin and ran deep into him. Suddenly he felt his body relax and his eyelids starting to feel heavy. A moment later he was unconscious.

'What did you do to him?' Ren asked as he walked to her side.

'This plant is a special hybrid I made myself. It'll keep him asleep for a couple of hours. I really didn't want to use it but in the end... ' She sighed and then looked at the Tao strangely. 'Eliot's going to kill him if we leave him like this. And he'll torture him before that. You know it.'

'I know what you're thinking.' Ren nodded slightly.

'Painless death.' she walked beside him and after a moment of hesitation jabbed him into the heart with her sword. A second later his body turned into dust. Destiny then looked at the burned yard. She let go of the swords and stretched her hands. Her palms started glowing slightly as the burned places begun to recover. For a couple of moments the yard was back to normal – no trace of what had happened. Fresh green grass everywhere.

'Now…' Destiny looked at Ren playfully 'Let's go steal some blood banks from the hospital!'

Before he could answer, she grabbed his hand and dragged him towards her car.

'WE'LL BRING SOME TO YOU TOO!' Deatiny called to Jun, while Ren was looking at her quite old car with suspicion.

'Where did you get… this junk!' he raised an eyebrow.

'It's not a junk! It's Emily! I stole it from a nice thief that had many like this one. Now get inside before I get really angry!'

* * *

Ren was looking thoughtfully trough the window. Destiny was too distracted singing (awfully!) and didn't notice his expression. He was thinking of how to tell a bit more of the story to the others when they get back. The words were in his head, yet he wasn't sure they were the right one. He once again repeated the story in his mind. 

Flashback:

_500 years ago…_

_'Hey, check out this one!' one of the tourists said to his friend pointing to a young girl that was walking down the street, slightly swaying. She was obviously drank. And it was almost one o'clock in the morning._

_'She's pretty, Tom. And she's drank…' he once again spoke to his young British friend._

_'You want me to take advantage of the poor girl!?' Tom raised his eyebrows._

_'Oh, __**come on**__! I know you want to! She seems to have no inhibitions: getting herself drank and walking around by herself. Besides, we are not home. Who's going to find out?'_

_'I don't know…' Tom begun but was cut off when the girl-in-question walked straight into him and he caught her._

_'Hello there…' she said looking up at him. 'I'm Ju… Jane…' she smiled at him She looked quite inappropriate… no, that wasn't the word… She looked __**strange**__! She was wearing male clothes… that were now on fashion in England. Some sort of bedraggled coat, a white T-shirt and trousers. However he couldn't say they didn't look very nice on her._

_'Miss I'd like to take you home. Could you tell me where your home is?' he said and his friend rolled his eyes._

_'Nooo…' she laughed 'But you can still help me…'_

_With those word she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him._

_'… to have some fun.' She ended, then stood up on her legs amazingly well, took his hand and dragged him in some small dark street. He looked quite pleased and so did his friend when he waved him to go._

_The girl slammed him into the wall harder than he expected and attacked his mouth. He was so busy kissing her that he didn't even realized she didn't smell like a drunk woman at all._

_'Do you like me?' she asked as she started kissing his neck._

_'Yes…' was all he could say, intoxicated from her touch._

_'Then I'm taking you…'_

_For a second he thought he was staring at pair of crimson eyes but then she looked down at his neck licking her lips._

_'Here we go…' she murmured but suddenly someone pulled her away from him from behind._

_'Oh, COME ON! Ren, let me go!' she shouted. The tall young man that had pulled her had piercing golden eyes that scared Tom._

_'You better go.' The stranger said, still holding the woman's collar. 'I'll take care of the lady.'_

_Tom nodded and immediately ran away to find his friend. Something told him he shouldn't mess with the golden-eyed lad._

_'Damn it Ren, let go!'_

_Ren didn't listen. He just lifted her and throw her on his shoulder like a bag of potatoes and started walking silently. She continued shouting and kicking but after a few minutes calmed down. He brought her to their home – a two-storied house with an awful garden that looked like it was going to fall apart every moment. Only it wasn't – it was an illusion. Inside it was much better._

_Ren finally walked inside and throw the girl on the sofa looking at her angrily._

_'The old "I'm drank" trick, huh? You wanted to turn that man into a vampire, didn't you?'_

_'I was just going to have some fun! It's not a problem when **you** want to have fun, is it?' she frowned and folded her arms._

_'I just FUCK girls! I don't turn them! Have all the affairs you want but stop trying to turn those men into vampires!'_

_'This is just because I had a few accidents!'_

_'What? You call that "accidents"? You can't teach a new vampire how to take care of himself! You keep forgeting to tell him things! The first two burned because they walked outside in the sun, one killed himself because he was a monk and the last one had the gift to turn balloons into squirrels and was immediately killed! '_

_'Oh, you're exaggerating!'_

_'Yeah, right. And what's with the clothes. I told you you can't go outside like this! It's inappropriate! You don't want to attract people's attention, do you?'_

_'Huh! Some day girls will wear trousers, believe me!'_

_'Until then, be a good girl and dress like a lady!' he said now calmly and pulled her black wig revealing long white locks. 'Better.'_

_He sat next to her. They had English furniture, English curtains and carpets, English everything in their house. Jun loved it. It made her feel much more comfortable. Not to mention how free she felt when she thought of how she would've never be allowed to have a home like this if she had been a human surving to the Tao clan._

_For the past century they have become quite popular among vampires, shamans and even people. It was Ren's gift that attracted the attention and Jun knew that. But she didn't care. She loved her unlife. The freedom, the adventures, the fun… Even though they had some trouble. Their family. The Tao clan had tried to kill them thousands of times already – sending zombies, shamans and spies. But it didn't work. They were way too strong and knew their family too well to fall for their tricks. And the vampires… When Eliot found out about what he had created he tried to make the sibling to join his group. Ren had refused. He wanted to be free and so did Jun. _

_'You should try to find yourself a girlfriend.' Jun said out of the blue. Ren looked at her strangely then unconsciously started pulling at his red lock. He did it all the time. That lock was the main reason why Ren could be easily recognized. It was all because of the gossips about "The vampire with the blood-red lock and golden eyes"…_

_'I'm perfectly fine this way.' He assure her. 'I'm not lonely, I have you.'_

_'Yeah, right.' Jun snorted 'I'm your sister. You need to communicate with a woman that's not your relative.'_

_'I do communicate with such women.'_

_'If you call a on-night affair communication - then yeah… But I mean a real long relationship.'_

_'That's ridicules.' he said immediately and quickly changed the subject 'I'm going out now. Stay here, I'll be back soon.' and he walked outside of the house. Jun shook her head. He was still running from conversations like this…_

* * *

_Ren walked around the town thinking about Jun's words. She was telling this to him for a millionth time… and may be she was right. May be he did need a serious relationship. Not just sex, something more… Like... Like..._

_Suddenly he felt something strange. Power. He hadn't felt anything like it before. It was like shaman's power, yet much bigger._

_'Mmm… The vampire with the blood-red lock. I can see why you're so famous… I can feel... your power is beyond incredible…' A voice behind him purred 'You were a shaman… I can sense that. My name is Hao and I came to you to make you an offer which you can't turn down. '_

End of flashback.

* * *

Oh my poor poor hand... I think this chapter could be boring and full with mistakes but I wrote it anyway and my hands are going to fall off any minute now. Please tell me if is bad. 


	8. Where're we going?

Flashback:

_'Mmm… The vampire with the blood-red lock. I can see why you're so famous… your power is beyond incredible…' A voice behind him purred 'You were a shaman… I can sense that. My name is Hao and I came to you to make you an offer which you can't turn down. '_

End of flashback.

* * *

The day after… 

'You are not serious…'

Pause.

'You ARE serious!' Yoh looked at Ren quite amazed. The vampire shrugged while looking at the microwave impatiently, almost as if he was ready to kill it if it didn't warm his breakfast faster.

'You actually met my brother's previous 'I'?' Yoh raised an eyebrow.

'Uh huh.' Ren started to tap his fingertips as he got more and more annoyed with the microwave 'At that time I knew nothing about him. I didn't care about the tournament or the shamans. I didn't even remember that the tournament had begun. On the other hand he knew everything about me and Jun. Every detail, every habit, every event… He knew me better than I knew myself. And he wanted me to join him… It was long time ago. I feel like an old man when I think of all those years. But the time actually doesn't matter when you're immortal. Oh well… I guess that's why Hao offered me to join him during this tournament. He probably knew that I was a former vampire. Actually everyone with brain would've noticed there was something weird about me, Jun and Destiny. I mean… even though we weren't real vampires anymore, we aged mush slower. For sixteen years our bodies aged with two years… Oh crap, it's still not warm enough!'

Ren pulled the cup out of the microwave. He didn't want to wait anymore. The stupid microwave was probably broken or something…

'What are you drinking?' Yoh asked as he took a sip from his tea. Ren looked closely to his cup, then tasted it.

'Mmm… 'B' positive.' He said.

'I shouldn't have asked…' Yoh sighed. Ren smiled amused revealing long milk-white fangs.

"He looks different." Yoh had to admit to himself, watching the fully transformed vampire. "What is it…? What is it that's different?" Ren suddenly started to hum a song while looking through the kitchen window and drinking the blood he and Destiny had brought the previous night. "He looks…" a small smile appeared on the Tao's face and Yoh's eyes widened a bit with realization "… Happy."

Ren finished his cup after a minute or so. He was wearing long black trousers, black T-shirt and a long leather coat… that was also black.

'What are you planning to do now?' Yoh asked carefully. Ren didn't answer for a couple of minutes then sighed and said softly:

'I don't know…'

It sounded quite strange coming from Ren's mouth but Yoh didn't say a thing.

'I bet we aren't finished with Eliot yet.' Ren continued after a while 'And my favorite family's probably going to interfere soon… All I know is that we must leave this place or you are going to get hurt.'

'Don't be ridicules!' Yoh waved his hand and spilled some of the tea on the floor. 'Ops! Oh well… Anyway, I'm soooo not letting you guys go by yourself!'

'There're three of us. We are not that little.' Ren remind him and raised an eyebrow. 'You better clean this up before Anna sees it.'

'It's going to be a great adventure!' Yoh was now looking for a floor-cloth.

'It's going to be dangerous.'

'Who cares!'

'I do!'

'Yeah, but no one cares that you care. And I wanna hear the rest of the story.' Yoh pointed out as he finally cleaned up the floor. 'Now let's go discuss this with the others.'

* * *

'I think we can take them, Ren.' Jun said and stretched herself 'Oh… It's so gooood to be back! I feel all…' 

'…Dead. Yeah.' Ren continued for her 'Yes, we can take them but that doesn't mean this is a good idea.'

'Oh, come on! Just the boys! Yoh and Horo.' She smiled at him sweetly and he felt his cheeks heat.

'Destiny!' he called hoping for a little support. However she was too busy discussing Anna's potted plants with the Itako and only waved her hand absently.

'See! She's on my side!' Jun immediately said and Yoh and Horo nodded.

'I don't care! We are not taking them!' Ren told her and folded his arms.

'Pleeeeeseeee, do it for me!' Jun smiled like a little angel and her brother's face softened.

'Well…'

'Oh thank you, Ren, thank you!' Jun stood up and hugged him, which made him blush like hell.

Gigantic smiles appeared on Yoh and Horo's faces.

'We're going to pack.' The Ainu said and the two disappeared.

"That's what happens when it comes to women…" Ren thought sighing.

* * *

'I don't like this car. It looks like it's going to fall apart every minute now.' Horo said and Destiny frowned dangerously. 

'Don't insult Emily! I stole it from a nice thief that had many like this one!' she immediately repeated what she had said the previous night to Ren. 'And don't worry, Ren'll fix it if it breaks.'

Ren didn't say a word, just started pulling at his red lock. Meanwhile…

'…and don't forget to phone me and write to me everyday.' Anna finished her long lecture. Yoh sighed with relief and nodded ' Oh! And one more thing!' his fiancée remembered 'Don't get eaten!'

'Of course mothe-.. I mean Anna. Hehehe…' Yoh nervously scratched the back of his neck.

'Ok! Everyone in the car!' Destiny commanded. Everybody took their last 'goodbuys' and hurried to obey.

'Who's driving?' Horo asked while sitting on the backseat.

'I am. Don't worry, I've had like… only a dozen of accidents.' She assured him as she sat on her seat with Ren next to her.

'A… dozens?' Horo gulped.

'Calm down. She's a good driver.' Ren added.

'Where're we going anyway?' Yoh asked.

Deatiny pulled out her keys and started up the engine. The car was working quite well.

'You didn't tell them?' Destiny asked and glanced at Ren. He shifted uncomfortably.

'I was planning on to do it…' He murmured.

'Yeah, right… I just hope they'll take it all right.' She said and took out some bubble gum from her pocket. 'Who wants some?'

No answer was heard and Destiny shrugged, taking a piece herself.

'So… where're we going?' Yoh asked finally since no one showed any signs of telling him and Horo.

'Oh! We're going to a nice vampire who moved to the south parts of Japan a while ago.' Ren said looking nervous. Destiny just sighed.

'Yeah? And who's that?' Horo questioned.

Ren opened his mouth to answer but Destiny was faster:

'That would be uncle Dracula.' She said carelessly.

* * *

So, what do you think? Just like into the second chapter, nothing really happens here, but I hope you like it! 


	9. I need your help!

'Yeah? And who's that?' Horo questioned.

Ren opened his mouth to answer but Destiny was faster:

'That would be uncle Dracula.' She said carelessly.

* * *

'What…?' was all Yoh managed to say after a long, long silence.

'Dracula. Vlad Dracula. Don't you know who he is?' Jun said raising an eyebrow.

'Yes, I know, but he… He's actually alive?' Yoh answered while trying his best to make the shocked Horo say something.

'Very alive, I might say.' Destiny blew a bubble. 'He's one of the oldest living vampires. A shape-shifter. He killed the actual son of Vlad Dracul (who we know as the father of Dracula) when he was just becoming a ruler and took his place. About two hundred years before that he was some sort of rich nobleman I don't know from where. But he says he's real "I" was revealed when he was a ruler. When he was Vlad ІІІ Tepes'

'So he… tortured and killed all those people.' Horo finally spoke. Ren turned to look at him, a gigantic grin on his face.

'Sure he did. May be he could tell you more if you ask him.' The Tao suggested.

Horo paled and gulped.

'He's a nice man. You'll like him, don't worry.' Jun assured the two humans though they still looked very unconvinced.

'Oh, come on! It's going to be a long travel, don't get so gloomy from the beginning!' Destiny said.

'Remind me… Why can't we take a plane or something?' Horo asked darkly.

'_Because_ if I use my credit card my family will find out where I am.' Ren answered a bit annoyed 'And right now I don't want anymore trouble.'

'Yeahhh… And how long are we going to travel?' Yoh asked.

'Few days. Two or three, probably.' Destiny said while searching for a nice station on the radio. 'But don't worry. It's going to be fun.'

'Yeah, right…' Horo murmured and Ren turned around to glare at him.

'I have very sensitive hearing.' He hissed.

'Ren's gonna tell as the story!' Destiny said out of the blue. 'Come on, darling, tell the children the story.'

Ren sighed. He wasn't in mood to entertain anyone and he quite well remembered saying they shouldn't come but he didn't want to make anymore noise.

Flashback:

_'Why not?' Hao raised an eyebrow when the vampire carefully refused to join him or having any connection with the tournament._

_'Look I've been a shaman; I know what it costs to enter the damn competition. And according to me it's stupid. No offense.' Ren shrugged and sat on the nearest steps of some closed shop._

_'I'm not making you enter the tournament. But I want you to join my group and help me. I'll teach you many thing, you'll become more powerful… ' Hao begun but the vampire shook his head._

_'I don't want more power.' He said, a small smile appearing on his face 'If I was a shaman I would've want more power since I would've been so much weaker. See, as a shaman I was nothing. Nothing comparing to what I am now. I don't want more power. I've got enough.'_

_'And what is it that you want?' Hao looked him straight in the eyes expecting that the vampire would look away. Only Ren didn't. He just tilted his head._

_'Freedom. One of the reasons I will turn down your offer. I don't want to work for anyone. I won't join your enemies either, so don't worry about that. But I'm not entering your team. I'm not entering any team. I'm on my own.' Ren stood up and dusted off his black clothes. 'But if you ever need some other help I'll gladly help. I mean aside from the tournament. You know, we vampires have plenty of time.'_

_If anybody else had refused to Hao's preposition, the shaman would've most likely killed him. But there was something about the golden-eyed vampire that made him live Ren as he was – undead being._

_"May be someday I will ask for his help." The shaman thought as he disappeared into the shadows._

_The next day…_

_'I need your help.' Hao announced._

_Ren glared at him. No one ever woke him up in ten o'clock in the morning. Not to mention the shaman was standing in the middle of the Tao's bedroom, while a young girl was sleeping next to the vampire._

_'So soon?' Ren hissed. 'And this is not the right moment! Nor the right place! Get out of here, you're going to wake Mei!'_

_Hao, not used to consider the other's wishes, looked at the vampire strangely._

_'Why are you still in the middle of my BEDROOM!' the vampire's whisper was getting more and more irritated. 'You can't just walk inside someone's house, not to mention someone's bedroom!'_

_'Why not?'_

_'JUST GO!'Ren took a deep breath to calm himself down 'Wait for me outside.'_

_A few minutes later…_

_'What is it?' Ren raised an eyebrow._

_'Well, I have a little problem.' Hao begun, choosing his words carefully. 'There is this person… a thief… She's something of a runaway bride… Anyway, we had a little problem and I want to work the thing out for us and…'_

_'Wait, wait, wait! Where is __**my **__place in all that?' Ren asked impatiently._

_'She won't come back. I'm too busy with the shaman tournament so I was wondering if you could get her for me.' Hao looked at Ren with expectation._

_'Why don't you ask someone else!' the vampire asked a bit desperately._

_'Well, I can't since everyone else are in my camp waiting for me to return and train them, tell them my planes, blah blah blah…' Hao explained 'Besides, you offered me your help if I need anything else that's not connected with the tournament. And you have lots of time.' The shaman added, tilting his head to a side._

_'So true…' the Tao murmured, rubbing his temples._

_'So you'll do it?'_

_'Yes…' Ren sighed._

_'Great! Oh! When you find her, you better tie her to a chair or something. I pretty sure she won't be eager to see me or talk to me.'_

_'Why not?'_

_'Wellll… I didn't actally tell her who I was. You know… The shaman-that-kills-people-and-other-shamans thing. She ran away even though I offered her to be my shaman queen. Anyway… I'll convince her if I have the chance to actually talk to her. But you'll take care of that. I'll come in two weeks.' With that Hao prepared to teleport back to his camp._

_'Wait! How do I find her?' Ren asked._

_'I think she'll be in the town soon enough. Don't worry you'll find her, she makes lots of noise around her. She'll probably rob something and make a chaos around her… Oh, well… Her name's Destiny. Wish you luck!' And within a second he was gone._

_'More girls…' Ren growled then turned around and went back to his bedroom._

End of flashback.

* * *

About two or three days later…

'And here we are.' Jun said as she stopped in front of a big four stored house with large beautiful garden in front of it. There was a gorgeous white fountain with a mermaid that brushed her long hair in the centre of the garden.

'He seems to be quite walthy.' Horo said a trace of jealousy in his voice.

'He's a secret agent now. So yeah, he's rich.' Jun shrugged. 'Let's go now.'

They walked to the intercom. After speaking to some sort of a servant, a deep voice was heard.

'You wanted to speak with me?'

'Vlad, it's me, Ren. I have a few friends with me and… you know, the band. Can we come in?'

* * *

Ok, I haven't read it so it might be(and probably will be) full of mistakes. Don't hate me. Please review 


	10. Guests

'Vlad, it's me, Ren. I have a few friends with me and… you know, the band. Can we come in?'

* * *

As they group approached the house, the doors opened for them. A tall was standing in the shadows, away from the sunlight.

'Ren, is that you?' the man asked carefully.

'Hello, Vlad.' The Tao greeted closing the doors behind him and blocking the light. The man was tall and slim, with dark thick hair, thin moustaches and eyes like embers. He looked around thirty.

'It is you! Ren, my boy, you're back!' Dracula shouted, walking towards Ren and hugging him 'Let me take good look at you!' he pulled back a bit 'I'm so glad to see you. I could feel there was something unusual approaching, but hey! I was so used you were no more a real vampire!'

'Please don't remind me!' Ren winced.

'Yes, of course. Oh, where're my manners, please come in!' he then looked at the girls 'Jun, sweetheart, still has the most beautiful smile. And Destiny… My little gorgeous Destiny! Darling, how are you? You look tired.'

'I was driving, uncle Vlad.' She explained. 'But I'm fine, don't worry. How are you doing?'

'Oh, perfectly fine, thank you!' he smiled widely 'Let's go to the living-room and talk!' he then notice Yoh and Horo and raised an eyebrow 'Uh… And what's with the humans? Walking breakfast of some kind?'

'I will appreciate if you eat the blue-haired only.' Ren said a smirk on his face as he saw the Ainu pale.

'Oh! You mean this one? He smells funny.' Dracula walked behind Horo and placed his hands on the boy's shoulders. The Ainu paled even more and looked like he was going to faint any minute now. Gladly, Jun interfered.

'They are both not for food. They are our friends.' The older Tao sibling said and carefully led Vlad away from the blue-haired shaman.

'Oh! I see. Very well. I'm Vlad Dracula, it's nice to meet you.' Dracula said, smiling widely as he stretched his hand towards Yoh.

'Nice to meet you too, mister Dracula! I've heard much about you!' Yoh happily took the offered hand and shook it enthusiastically.

'Why, thank you! But I'm nothing much, believe me.' He then turned towards the other shaman offering him his hand as well 'And you are?'

Horo looked at the vampire very suspicious.

'Are you sure he won't eat me?' he asked nobody specifically and after getting many glares finally shook Vlad's hand.

'All right, now let's go! The living-room's waiting for us!' Dracula shouted keen as mustard and led them to a large room with a stone place, beautiful Persian carpets, elegant furniture in "old time" style, a huge bookcase and dark blue curtains, that blocked completely the sunlight.

'Would you like something to drink?' he asked as they sat in comfy coaches and arm-chairs around the table.

'Some tea, if it's not a big trouble.' Yoh grinned.

'Same.' Horo shrugged.

'Coffee.' Destiny asked and the Tao sibling asked for the same.

'Just a sec.' Vlad promised and called a servant that took their orders.

'How long do you know him?' Yoh whispered to Ren.

'For centuries.' Was the answer. 'He's an interesting person.'

'I can see that.' Yoh agreed. 'But he's ok… I guess.'

'He's a very loyal friend. Al least that I can say without hesitation.'

'How old was Dracula?' Yoh asked while examining the ex-ruler.

'Eight hundred plus.'

At that time Vlad finished ordering and turned to Ren.

'So, what's taking you here?' Dracula asked and leaned in his arm-chair.

'Troubles, as always.' Ren shrugged, a half-smile on his face.

'I see.' Vlad nodded and took the cup the servant hand him.

'Oh! And what's going on with…?' the Tao looked like he had just remembered something important.

'Well, we're ok, I guess. Not much trouble. Though you know there's always trouble. He's sleeping right now. I guess he was a bit tired. He doesn't like working.'

'Not a big surprise.' Ren had to admit as he took a sip of his own drink.

Vlad then looked at Ren and Destiny very suspicious over his cup's edge and without too much thinking asked loudly:

'You're not groping each other under the table, are you?'

Ren choked with the coffee and Destiny looked at Dracula dangerously.

'Oh, I'm sorry, did I say something rude?' Vlad looked at them innocently.

'YES!' the couple shouted at the same time.

'I beg a pardon. I just remembered that Ren was quite a lover-boy, slept with almost every girl he met. Well, I don't think they minded at all but… wow! The boy couldn't control his hormones. You invite him on some party and after five minutes his gone and so is some lady. Sometimes more than one.' Vlad shook his head and took a sip from his drink. Ren had covered his red face with his hand, while Destiny and Jun tried to keep themselves from laughing and the boys were exchanging shocked glances.

'But I can't say Jun and Destiny we any better.' Vlad continued 'Affairs here and there with every kind of men. I quite well remember when…'

'That's enough, Vlad, thank you. We got the point.' Jun said trying very hard to sound calm and failing miserably. Vlad though didn't notice.

'I'm very glad.' He nodded to himself 'Now, back to busyness. What's the situation and what help do you need?' he carefully placed his cup on the table.

'All right. So it goes like this…' Jun started. Telling the vampire everything they've experienced. Dracula was listening very seriously to every word she said.

'I see.' He nodded in the end 'So the humans are friends of yours? Right. And did you tell them everything? The whole story?'

'Not really… But we started telling it.' Ren answered.

'Well, then we should continue.' Vlad smiled widely and sat back in his arm-chair. 'It's quite a story so I don't mind listening as well.'

'All right then…' Ren sighed.

Flashback:

_That evening Ren was walking down the street thinking of the girl he had to find. He didn't mind searching for her at all. It was a small adventure itself. But he didn't have a clue how she looked like, what she liked, what she wore and so on. All he knew was that she was a thief, some sort of Hao's girlfriend, she made lots of chaos around her and her name was Destiny._

_"Destiny? What kind of name is this anyway? It can't be her real name, right? Is she a shaman or human? Or may be even demon?" he thought._

_He kicked some sort of stone and looked at the sky for a moment. He had placed a spell on Mei that morning to make her forget she ever met him. He just… couldn't have a long relationship… yet. Well, she wanted to, but she was soooo… soooo… Well, anyway, she wasn't the right one._

_"Not that I'm perfect." He had to admit to himself. He then sighed and turned around, planning to go home. He didn't want any affairs tonight. He wanted peace and quiet. And his pajamas on during the night…_

_Suddenly his senses screamed there was danger, then some really loud noise, the ground started shaking as if there was a big earthquake. Only, it was over very fast. He looked back and saw there was black smoke in the air that cam from… from… the jewel store?_

_'Wow! Did someone rob it or something?' Ren thought as he scratched the back of his neck, not really interested in what was really happening there._

_He then remembered Hao's words. So may be, this Destiny girl was here, after all. So soon…_

_He shrugged and ran towards the smoking building, hoping to catch the thief._

End of flashback.

Suddenly the door opened and someone went inside.

'Oh, God, that was such a nice nap!' the someone said, stretching his arms. He then noticed the group of people (and vampires) and after a moment of staring at them and them, staring at him, he finally spoke:

'Hi, guys.'

Silence.

'HAO!!!' Horo shouted as he stood up, his mouth wide open.

* * *

I haven't read it or checked it... again. but I don't have time now, when I go to school and all. I'm really sorry. And I bet my last chapters, including this one, are much worse than the first chapters. Don't hate me! 


	11. We're buddies!

'HAO!!!' Horo shouted as he stood up, his mouth wide open.

* * *

'That would be me.' The pyro said a big grin on his face. 

'But you had to be dead!' the Ainu insisted and looked at Dracula quite irritated 'What is _he_ doing in _your _house?'

'Sleeping.' Hao answered sincerely. Horo glared at him then once again turned towards Vlad.

'WHY is he sleeping here?'

'Because I was tired.' Hao leaned against the door-frame.

'OHHHHH! SHUT UP! I'M GOING TO KILL YOU!' the Ainu prepared to throw himself at the pyro, but was stopped by Ren's hand, tightly gripping his arm.

'Calm down, Horo.' The vampire said.

'Don't you tell me TO CALM DOWN! THIS IS OUR WORST ENEMY STANDING HERE!' the shaman shouted once again.

'Hi, Ren, what's up?' Hao greeted as he approached the Tao, smiling as always. 'This place is great, thank you for sending me here.'

Horo froze then turned around to face Ren.

'You… did… WHAT!' the Ainu hissed.

'I couldn't just leave him in the desert! And he and Vlad are old friends so I made a few calls and send him here.' The Tao explained.

'I don't… get it! WHAT DID YOU DO THAT FOR? You hate him!' Horo continued very, very annoyed with everything.

'I never said I hated him!' Ren calmly reminded him 'I was just against his idea of killing you.' He thought for a moment and then added in a "by the way" manner 'And the idea of killing all the humans wasn't brilliant either.'

'Are you telling me… that you two are actually… some weird sort of friends?' Yoh approached the three.

'Aside from the tournament we're buddies.' Hao grinned. 'Ren never irritated me. Unlike the others from Yoh's little group. I don't even mind that he took my girlfriend. Destiny is quite pig-headed.' He then winked at his ex 'Anyway, what happened? How did you become vampires again? And more importantly, why are you here?'

'Actually, I came to take you with us.' Ren said and at that point Horo finally couldn't take it anymore and fainted.

* * *

'I see…' Hao nodded after listening to the whole story. 'Oh, I hate that idiot Eliot! I'll gladly help you. Besides I don't like working here. It's so boring! No offence, Vlad.' 

'It's OK.' Dracula assured him.

'Ren, are you sure this is a good idea. Don't you think it's a bit… dangerous?' Yoh asked carefully.

'Oh, come on! He's your twin. He's just like you… just a little more nuts.' Ren shrugged 'Besides, he's not as strong as before. Well, he is strong… but not THAT much. I mean… oh! Who cares! He's coming!'

'We won't fit in the car.' Horo reminded him as a last sign of protest as he kept a wet cloth on his forehead.

'I'll give you a microbus, don't worry.' Dracula said immediately. 'But where are you about to go anyway?'

'Well, we'll stay here for a few days. Anddd… I'll try to find a way to trace Eliot. I need to finally end this.' Ren explained.

'I'm pretty much sure that Eliot will send someone by then.' Jun said 'I even know who'll be that.'

'Yeah? And who?' Yoh asked raising an eyebrow.

'Well, he has a group of nine vampires and knowing him, he probably has the same group even now: Leon, the twins, Ian, Marissa, Melanie – Eliot's wife, Garry and Simon and Monika – the brother and the sister.' Jun paused for a second 'Marissa, Melanie and Leon are the strongest. He keeps them for the final. So now there're the twins, Garry, Simon and Monika. He'll probably send them.'

'At once?' Yoh asked.

'I don't know. May be, may be not.' Jun shrugged.

'It's not like we can do anything.' Destiny murmured.

'We could learn what happened next with you guys.' Yoh suggested.

'I'm tired of telling…' Ren sighed and sat back in the coach.

'Ohhhhh… So you're telling them! I wanna hear it too!' Hao immediately said.

'Fiiiiiinnnneeeee' Ren agreed boredly.

Flashback:

_"This is probably her…" Ren thought as he watched a girl with a bag walking down a deserted street near the burning store. She couldn't see him since he was on the roof of some tall building. Although there was something weird around her. Her aura… It was somehow different…_

_"Oh my God! She's a vampire!" he realized as he jumped on the roof of a smaller building. When he did that, the girl stopped dead in her track and looked around, her eyes wider than usual. With his extremely strong senses he could feel her tension._

_'I know you're here. Show yourself!' Destiny called. Ren smirked and jumped off the building landing softly on the ground a few meters away from her._

_'Hello there.' He greeted looking at her up and down. Boy, Hao did have good taste. She was absolutely gorgeous. _

_'What do you want?' she snapped, a dangerous frown on her face._

_'Hao sent me. I need to take you with me. He wants to talk with you.' Ren explained and tilted his head to a side._

_'Sod off. I'm not going anywhere.' She snorted very un-lady-like._

_'That's very impolite considering I'm going to offer you a very acceptable house to stay and I won't make you pay anything.' He grinned. 'And half the city is chasing you right now so… yeah, come with me.'_

_'I WON'T! You irritate me!' she hissed and suddenly the ground underneath him shook and a big ugly root tried to stab Ren. Luckily he jumped back… The second he did so another very mean root repeated the first one's attempt._

_'What the hell are you doing!!??' Ren shouted, confusion clear in his voice as some sort of strange trees appeared out of nowhere, enclosing him like a cell. A few other stalks wrapped themselves around his neck, wrists and waist but he didn't even try to get away._

_'Don't worry, they won't hurt you… if you don't move too much of course.' She walked by the cell and blew him a kiss, chuckling maliciously. He just glared at her._

_'Such a loser!' she murmured as she passed the cell. 'I can't believe Hao sent him! I deserve more than a moron to come after me, right?'_

_'Wrong.' A voice said behind her and she felt pain in the back of her neck, before everything went black._

_'That was too easy.' Ren said to himself as he picked up the unconscious girl and her bag._

_The next morning…_

_'Oh, my head…' Destiny moaned as she slowly begun to remember the previous night. She opened her eyes carefully and looked around her. She was in some sort of room and she was tied to a… chair? With ropes?_

_'Huh? That guy was even stupider than I thought!' she looked at the ropes with amusement. With her super vampire strength she was easily going to free herself. She pulled at them, expecting that they'll tear apart without any problems, but nothing happened._

_'What the…?' she tried again, this time noticing a light glow coming from them. 'You gotta be kidding me!'_

_Someone unlocked the door in front of her and the guy from yesterday walked inside._

_'I made the ropes myself. Fascinating, huh? They suck your unnatural powers.' He smiled at her evilly and approached her. 'Are you hungry? I have fresh blood.'_

_'I'll pass' she hissed, glaring at him._

_'As you wish.' He shrugged, then walked even closer and bent to her eye-level. 'Yes, Hao does have a taste.' He grabbed her shin and started examining her face almost as if he was preparing to buy her like some sort of livestock. That really irritated her, so she pulled away harshly and tried to bite his hand._

_'And with temper as well.' Ren noted 'Call me if you need something.'_

_With that he made his way towards the door._

_'Wait!' she shouted 'You can't just leave me here!'_

_'Oh, yes I can!'_

_'But I'm going to die from boredom!'_

_'And I have to care because…'_

_'What am I suppose to do?'_

_'Wait for Hao to come and count the flies'_

_Dastiny growled._

_'The moment I get away from here, you're going to regret the day you met me!'_

_He was reaching for the door, when he stopped. He turned around, his eyes crimson and a big smirk on his face. Then he was gone._

_'HUH? Where did he go? He was just…' the girl begun but she felt a warm breath near her ear and shut up._

_'I'm right here.' Ren whispered and chuckled softly._

_'No… You can't be. Not even vampires can move that fast!' she shook her head in disbelieve._

_'You think?' he asked, suddenly at the door again. He smirked again and went out, leaving her with her mouth wide open and her eyes big as plates._

_'Did I just see… a crimson lock in his hair?' she whispered to herself._

End of flashback.

'OK!' Dracula enthusiastically clapped his hands. 'Jun, Horo and Yoh take whatever room they like on the forth floor and Destiny and Ren can choose one on the second floor. Hao has a room already.'

'Why are they on another floor?' Horo asked suspiciously.

'Because they have some thing to make up for. And sixteen year is quite long time…' Vlad explained, patting the Ainu on the back with a bit too much force. 'Now off you go!'

'Thank you, Vlad.' Ren whispered as he put his arm around Destiny's waist. The older vampire grinned and winked.

'You guys have fun. And don't make too much noise!' he told them and left for the fourth floor as well, leaving the couple alone in the hall on the second floor.

'He's such a good friend!' Ren said, then without any warning picked Destiny up and kissed her. 'As he said… we have to make up for sixteen years, so what are we waiting for!' and with that he carried her bridal-style to one off the rooms, the lock clicking behind them…

* * *

I haven't read it (Big surprise!). But thank you guys for continuing to read my story. Tell me what you think about this chapter. 

Tell me if you have any preferences about the next chapters. I mean I actually included Hao in the group, bacause it seems Luna-chan really likes him, so if you have anything else that you'd like me to do, tell me and I'll consider it.

Anyway, I hope you like it!


	12. Good mood

Yoh and Horo exchanged glances as Ren entered the kitchen, wet from the shower he had just taken and with a small smile on his face. He was drying his hair and humming softly to himself.

'You're in good mood this morning.' Horo noted and raised an eyebrow. Ren's smile only grew as he took the bottle of milk Vlad offered him and took a sip of it.

'That's true.' He answered.

'It's also true that you, my dear blueberry, are very dull.' Hao added and chuckled as the Ainu glared at him barely kept himself from attacking him.

'I'm not dull!' Horo insisted.

'Oh, yes, you are, if you don't understand why your vampire friend is in such a good mood.' The pyro smile at him widely almost as if he was telling him some sort of compliment.

'Shut up, Hao, this is none of your busyness.' Ren said although his voice didn't sound as firm and harsh as he hoped. He blushed an adorable shade of pink and concentrated on the bottle of milk.

At that point Destiny entered the room, wearing on of Ren's T-shirts and a pair of his shorts, both way too big for her slim figure. But she didn't seem to mind.

'Good morning.' Destiny greeted, sitting beside Ren and giving him a fast peck on the lips 'Did you sleep well?'

'I slept like a baby! No Anna to bother me!' Yoh grinned happily.

'Same here.' Horo murmured, too busy glaring at Hao.

'What about you, guys? Did you get _any_ sleep? At all?' the pyro asked, then took a big sip of his tea.

'I quite well remember I said this was none of your busyness.' The Tao repeated this time firmer. Hao just shrugged in response.

'Anyway, what are we doing today?' Yoh asked. 'I suggest Ren tells us a little more of the story and then we go sightseeing!'

'That sounds like a great idea!' Vlad agreed, enthusiastically as always 'I shall show you around!'

'I don't feel like I'm on some sort of vacation, but if want it so much, go sightseeing. I still need to find a way to locate Eliot and his group.' Ren answered.

Flashback:

_'Are you sure you are not hungry?' Ren swung the mug in front of her nose. Destiny gulped, sniffing the tempting smell of fresh blood, but still shook her head stubbornly._

_Ren was sitting on a wooden chair opposite of her and was trying really hard to make her eat for about twenty minutes already. Failing miserably, of course._

_'But you're not hungry for two days already!' he insisted 'Come on! It's delicious. Eat it before it gets cold.'_

_'I don't want to!' she hissed._

_'Well, that's a total lie and you know it!' Ren noted and took a sip of the mug he was offering her. 'See? It's not poisoned! Now be a good girl…'_

_She looked at him very suspiciously._

_'Why are you doing this?' Destiny asked._

_'Doing what? Not poisoning your food?' he raised an eyebrow 'Does it really bother you that much?'_

_'No! Not that!' she snorted and rolled her eyes 'Why are you being so nice to me?'_

_'Why shouldn't it? I'm not some sort of kidnapper, planning to make your family pay to free you. I just tided you so you won't try to kill me with those roots of yours… Don't you like A negative, because I could bring you something else.'_

_'No, it's all right. Hand it over.' She rolled her eyes._

_'So you're going to eat it!' Ren's face lit up._

_'Yes, I'm going to eat it.'_

_'Then I'll free one of your hands…' he looked her in the eyes 'And you're going to behave. I don't want any trouble.'_

_She thought for a moment, then nodded. Ren then stretched his hand at lightly touched the ropes around her right wrist with his index finger. The moment he did so, they fell on the ground. Destiny looked at them dumbfounded, then moved her now free hand._

_'How did you do that?' she asked._

_'That's a secret. Now eat your meal.' Ren handed her the cup._

_'Who are you anyway?' she asked out of the blue and drank half of the mug in one sip. 'Your aura is… well, strange.'_

_'My name is Ren. What about you?' he tilted his head to a side._

_'Destiny.'_

_'That's not your real name, now, is it?' he raised an eyebrow._

_'No, it isn't. But 'Ren' isn't your full name, right? Why don't you tell me your last name and then I'll think about telling you my real name.'_

_'You'll "think"?' he laughed dryly 'That's not a good enough offer for me.'_

_'Oh, well… Then we're stuck.' She shrugged and finished her mug._

_'Do you want more?' Ren asked, taking the empty mug. She thought for a moment then shook her head. 'I'd rather continue our chat. I haven't talked with another vampire for… quite some time.'_

_'Ok… Don't tell me your name, just why you've changed it.' He suggested._

_'Well, my former life was a big mess. I was the big daughter of a… wealthy man. They wanted me to marry a man from my class but he was… well, ugly, selfish and… he was a midget. Not to mention that my little sister hated me and my father was always "disappointed".' She explained._

_He didn't say anything for a while._

_'So, you're Rei Ya__n, that disappeared without any warning. You were a princess. _( Author's note: I just made that up.) _' He suddenly said and she stared at him dumbfounded. Ren smirked and sat back in his chair. 'It wasn't that hard to figure out. Besides, I bet deep inside you wanted me to find that out. You've been hiding it for too long. Had to share it with someone…'_

_'Yeah, right. And who're you? The Great Mind Reader? ' she raised an eyebrow and started playing with her hair._

_'Not exactly but you're getting close.' He assured her. 'How old are you?'_

_'Thirty. And you?'_

_'One hundred. But I look younger, don't you think?'_

_'Very funny.' Destiny said calmly. She couldn't figure him out yet. He was speaking with her almost as if they were sitting in some restaurant and exchanging interesting thoughts._

_'Why did you become a thief?' Ren asked, raising an eyebrow._

_'Well, I don't know… Because it's fun.' She answered with a shrug._

_'I've got to introduce you to my sister. She's big fan of "fun".' The Tao noted._

_'You've got a sister? Is she a vampire as well?'_

_'Yep. We were turned into vampires in the same night. A big night, I might say.' He explained. 'It seems so long ago now. Almost as if I've never been a human before.'_

_'Same. Even though I'm much younger.' Destiny nodded._

_'Okeeeey…' Ren looked like he was thinking of a new subject ' Do you read books? Because I could find you something so you won't be too bored when I go somewhere.'_

_'Yeah, sure. That would be nice.' Destiny agreed. Ren got up and made his way to the door. When he opened it intending to walk pot of the room, there stood Hao._

_'Oh, hello there. You're early.' The Tao noted._

_'I decided to see if you found my girl. I have only a couple of free minutes, so...'_

_'Yes, come in. I'll leave you two to talk.' And with that Ren let Hao in and went outside looking for something else to do._

End of flashback.

Suddenly the kitchen door opened and Jun stormed inside.

'Ren, you need to come!' she insisted, grabbing his hand and making him stand up. He looked at her with sincere confusion. 'They've found us!'

'Who? I don't sense any vampires around here.' The younger sibling answered, but Jun shook her head immediately.

'Not vampires!' she looked almost annoyed. 'The Tao clan. I don't know how, but they've found us.'

'Are they here?' Ren asked, a frown on his face.

'Yes, down in the yard… waiting.'

'How many?'

'Two shamans. The best ones.'

Ren froze.

'You mean… Ron and Sam? Oh, that idiot Ron!' (Author's note: I know the names are stupid but I can't think of anything else.) the younger Tao sibling winced 'I hate that blond freak. Every time I met him he provoked me and in the end we fought. Then they always said it was my entire fault.'

'Forget about that! We have things to do!' with that she grabbed his hand and pulled him towards the door 'Let's get this over with.'

* * *

Chapter twelve! And I haven't read it...

If you like my stries, check out my new RenxAnna fanfic. I've started it yesterday, but that doesn't mean I won't updait this one as well.

By the way, Captain Jones, I'm Bulgarian. На бас, че това не го очаквахте! - But I'm not that bad at English... right?

Review!


	13. Ren's power

In the back yard two tall figures were standing, each of them with a weapon with his hand. The first one, Ron, had grey eyes and long brown hair, tied up in loose pony-tail. The other one – Sam, was extremely slim and had blond curly hair and empty black eyes.

'Hello there, nice to see you.' Ren said as he walked outside of the house, putting his long black coat on in the process. Jun followed right after him.

'The clan sent us.' Ron announced 'If you're not willing to turn back into humans we'll be forced to…'

'Destroy us, yes.' Jun finished for him, her voice and face showing nothing but pure boredom 'But I don't think this is going to happen. The clan was lucky sixteen years ago when they captured us, but this is not about to happen again.'

'We'll fight and see.' Sam answered, pointing a spear at the older Tao sibling. She raised an eyebrow at him, completely uninterested and put her hands on her hips.

'Did anyone tell you… what we are?' Ren asked as his eyes went crimson. 'Did they tell you what we can do?'

'Does it matter, Ren?' Ron smirked pulling out a sword 'A demon or not you'll always be the weak one. We've proved that many times before, haven't we?'

'I don't want to fight you.' The vampire hissed, baring his fangs at him. 'Though you are really tempting me right now.'

'This talk is useless.' Jun noted 'I'm getting really bored. Let's get it over with. I'm taking the one that looks like a chop stick. You can have Ron.'

'Thank you for your generosity.' Ren murmured and then concentrated on Ron and his slightly flaming sword.

Sam attacked the girl, aiming very precisely at her heart. She didn't move a finger, just watched him approach with a very creepy smile on her face. A second later the spear went straight through her, appearing from the her back.

Yoh and Horo, who watched the scene through the window paled and were going to run to the girl, when Hao stopped them.

'Stay here you fools, they'll handle it.' The pyro hissed a bit irritate.

Jun looked down at where the weapon had speared her. No blood was coming out.

'Have you ever watched "Terminator 2"?' she asked looking at the dumbfounded Sam 'Because I'm pretty sure they've stolen the idea from me.' With that she simply walked backwards until the spear was out of her body. The next second her right hand from the elbow to the fingertips started changing. Her skin color became silver, the curves that separated her fingers disappeared living her palm flat and sharp on the edges and within a moment or two she had a blade in the place of her hand.

'Fascinating, don't you think?' she noted, before assaulting him.

Meanwhile Ron attacked his opponent but all he hit was the solid ground. He pulled the heavy weapon up, looking at the deep trace it had left with a perplexity.

'What the… where did he go?' the shaman murmured, looking around.

'I'm right here.' A voice said from behind him and in the moment Ron turned around, Ren simply punched him in the face.

'God! This feels so nice.' Ren had to admit with a sigh, glancing at his fist and then at Ron's bleeding lip.

'I'm so going to kill you!' the brunette hissed and immediately repeated the attack. Only to hit the ground once again.

'Sorry, dude. I'm already dead.' Ren noted from five meters away, with his hands in his pockets and a very angelic expression on his vampire face. 'How are you doing, sis?'

'Oh, I'm fine.' Jun assured him as she attacked Sam, hitting his leg. 'I'm not in a good shape, though… But I'll be fine. Don't worry.' She smiled at him sweetly as her opponent's spear went through her neck without harming her at all.

'I'm not worried. It's not like you can get hurt.' Ren told her before getting away from Ron's next assault.

'You… can't POSSIBLY… move that fast!' Ron growled. The vampire put on a fake smile.

'If you knew me better, you would've had another opinion about what is possible and what not.' Ren said calmly.

'Freak.' Ron hissed before attacking him.

'You're right. I am a freak.' The vampire agreed, a still expression on his face as he watched his opponent's weapon stop right in front of his neck.

'Huh?' Ron looked at his hand dumbfounded. Why had it stopped? He tried to make the blade go through the vampire's neck, but nothing happened. The shaman's eyes widened with both shock and fear.

'I… can't move!' Ron whispered. Ren tilted his head to a side, the edge of his lips slightly flinched almost as if he was about to smile. Almost.

'Is that so?' Ren's eyes went back to their normal golden color 'What do you think _now_ about the possibilities? '

'Damn you!' Ron whispered angrily.

'Apparently still you have no idea what you're dealing with.' Ren faked a desperate sigh. He then breathed out against the blade. What happened next made Yoh, Horo, Ron and Sam stare at Ren with shock.

The moment the vampire's breath reached the blade, the steel fell off like a melted icicle, leaving nothing more than just a hilt in Ron's hand. The molten drops formed a little silver puddle between the two.

'OH MY GOD!' Sam shouted but that was the last thing he said, before Jun hit him and he fell on the ground unconscious.

'That's better.' Jun noted, as her hand got back to normal and she begun cracking her fingers.

'Have you got any idea what I can do to you?' Ren hissed dangerously, his eyes crimson again and his fangs bared 'I can rip your hear out…' with that he reached forward and his clawed hand passed right through Ron's chest, without hurting him. Ren pulled his hand back and smiled at the shaman. 'I can break every singe bone in your body...' he started slowly circling around the frozen boy 'I can tear your throat… Drink your blood… Cut your legs and arms off and let you die in pain. Yes… I can do that.' Ren snapped his fingers and Ron fell backwards on the grass.

'I can… But I won't, though it's really tempting.' Ren bent over the other guy 'You know why? I need you to go back home. I need you to tell them what happened here. Everything. Tell them… they cannot beat us. And they better not try, because I won't be so kind the next time.'

Ren blinked, and when he once again opened his eyes, they were gold.

'Now take your stick-like friend and go.' The vampire finished, then turned around and started walking back towards the house, leaving the two figures behind him. Jun followed right after him.

* * *

'Feeling all right?' asked Destiny walking out of the bathroom with a towel around her slim body. They were in their bedroom and it was already late in the evening. Ren was sitting in a chair with a tired look on his face. 

'Sure. Just a bit tired. I haven't used my powers in awhile.' The boy said with sigh. She walked to him from behind and put her little palms on his shoulders.

'Well, you did great.' She assured him.

Ren smiled lightly, then took one of her hands and kissed it.

'You smell enchanting!' he whispered and she chuckled softly.

'That would be my shampoo.' She answered with a smile.

'No, you always smell sweet.' He told her. Destiny bent and gave him a quick peck on the lips. She then freed her hand from his and started massaging his neck and shoulders.

'Mmm… What did I do to deserve such a treatment?' he asked softly closing his eyes.

'Well, I'm just trying to… put you in the mood… For something that you might not be tired for.' She explained with a small smirk on her face.

'Yeah?' he asked, then pulled her into his lap. 'You don't need to make anything to put me in the mood for these sort of things, you know.' He then leaned forward and kissed her, his hand moving from her knee up under her towel…

* * *

'How did he do that?' Horo asked. He, Yoh, Jun, Dracula and Hao were sitting in the living-room, playing cards. 'What exactly is his gift? Jun has the… strange body that turns into steel and… well, melts into steel, but he… well…' 

'Look, blueberry…' Hao started and the Ainu glared at him.

'DON'T call me that!'

'Whatever, blueberry.' Hao waved his hand absently 'You see, we don't really know… What Ren's power is. We don't know its limits. Nor does Ren. So we simply call it Dark magic.'

'Wha…?' Yoh stared at his brother dumbfounded.

'Yeah… "Wha" is correct.' The pyro agreed 'There is only one vampire in the world that has the same power. And unfortunately knows way much more about it…'

'Who's that?' Yoh asked, although he already had that figured out. He simply hoped he was wrong. His brother stood silent for a moment before answering:

'Eliot.'

* * *

How was that? Haven't read it, of course, but I really hope it's ok. 

And Sam, don't hate me for picking that name, ok?


	14. Training and talking

'Who's that?' Yoh asked, although he already had that figured out. He simply hoped he was wrong. His brother stood silent for a moment before answering:

'Eliot.'

* * *

The next morning… 

'What's that noise?' Yoh asked blinking a few times. He was sitting with the others in the kitchen, having breakfast. The only missing was Ren. And from very early in the morning there was some strange noise coming from backyard. In the beginning he tried not to pay attention but soon the sounds became more and more weird.

'Oh… Mmm… I think Ren's training in the backyard.' Vlad explained and took a sip from his cup 'He's in bad shape… Didn't use much of his powers, yet got tired yesterday.'

'He wasn't _that_ tired.' Destiny objected, a small blush appearing on her face.

'Sure. For you he's never tired.' Jun added a trace of jealousy in her voice.

'Don't get all moody, Junny.' Hao patted her on the back 'My bedroom doors are always opened, and I'm never tired as well…'

Jun glared at him and removed his hand, which was now tracing small circles on her back.

'Dream on, Asakura!'

'Fine! I will. And you will as well.' Hao calmly replied and concentrated on his sandwich.

'You're one big bunch of kids, you know that?' Dracula announced and shook his head. The kitchen suddenly went quiet as everyone was now silently glaring at the host.

'What? It is true?' Vlad insisted. Before anyone could start arguing with him the next very disturbing noise was heard from the backyard. It sounded like explosion. At that point all the "kids" ran out to see what had happened, Horo still holding a salt-cellar. Dracula sighed, now absolutely convinced that he was right and followed them without hurrying.

'Ren, are you all right?' Destiny asked as she first reached the Tao and hugged him. He was just standing in the middle of the yard, a very disturbed expression on his face. She pulled away and looked at him up and down.

'Well, I am fine but… I accidentally made that tree explode…' he explained, nervously scratching the back of his neck 'You can.. you can fix it, right?'

Destiny followed his gaze. There was a small black crater in the right, a few meters away.

'That… was a tree?' she asked, raising an eyebrow. 'You… BLEW UP A TREE!'

'I didn't mean it!' Ren immediately said. 'It was an accident! You know… I got distracted while using my gift…'

'Someday you're going to blow up someone's head this way.' She answered, then walked towards the crater and stretched her hand over it. A second later the ground fissured and a nice little sapling popped out of it.

'I'm in bad shape. _That's_ why I made the stupid tree explode!' Ren argued, folding his arms. She turned around, a frown on her face.

'It's not stupid! It's a living thing! Just like you and I.' She snapped, putting her hands on her hips.

'You and I aren't living things anymore!' Ren noted as a matter-of-factly 'We should've died centuries ago.'

'Oh, shut up. That's not the point!'

'I blew up a tree. Big deal!'

'Well, it is big! You have to take it seriously.'

'I _am_ taking it seriously! That's why I asked you to leave me alone to train!'

'OK! That's quite enough, you two.' Yoh broke into the conversation and hurried to Ren's side. Horo followed after, leaving Vlad (who couldn't stand sunlight) and Jun and Hao, who were arguing about who was more "dreaming" about the other inside the house.

'What's up, Ren?' the Ainu asked, still holding the salt-cellar.

'I'm training. Do you want to show you?' Ren asked and the salt-cellar flew by itself in the air towards the vampire. The lid was removed the same way, without anyone touching it, then it turned upside down, letting some of the salt fall in Ren's hand.

'Careful, Ren.' Destiny warned, slightly displeased with what he was doing. He just shrugged, glancing at her stubbornly and closed his palm. When he opened it, a beautiful white and black butterfly flew out of it.

'That was nice…' Horo commented, as he watched the former pinch of salt making its way to some flower.

'Yes, but totally useless.' Ren answered, then sat on the grass, in a position of meditating 'Though right now I need to train my concentration, not to make useful things. And turning some object into a creature needs a lot of concentration…'

'Yeah? How many hours are you doing this?' Yoh asked, sitting beside him. Ren thought for a bit, before replying:

'Four or five, I think.'

'Well, it was about time for some accident to happen, then.' Yoh noted wisely, that stupid grin of his appearing on his lips 'You need some rest… Let's go inside.'

'Yeah, you're probably right.' The Tao admitted, running his hand through his inky hair. He stretched his arms, then stood up, dusted off his clothes and walked towards the house. Yoh followed him happily.

'So it's story time, huh?' the Asakura asked and Ren looked at him oddly.

'I didn't say that.' The vampire said, as they passed the still arguing Jun and Hao.

'It doesn't matter. You still have to tell us the rest.'

'This is getting annoying, you know.'

'Yeah… I know. But you are going to tell it, right?' Yoh smiled innocently 'Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right? Right?'

'Fine! Just shut up!' Ren rubbed his temples as he entered the living-room and sat on the coach. In less than a minute everybody was there as well. Almost as if they had smelled the fact Ren was going to tell some more of the story again.

Flashback:

_The noise was getting really disturbing… Ren had just come back from his walk and was quite surprised that Hao and Destiny were still talking. No, wait. Talking wasn't the right word… More like the girl was shouting and the pyro was desperately trying to calm her down. _

"_He can't handle a tied up lass… I wonder how he's planning to kill all the humans. The girls are going to rip him apart." Ren thought, then shook his head and sat on the sofa. He tried really hard to relax, but the noise that the two guests were making didn't let him. After a while he just gave up with a sigh and waited patently for Jun to come back. At least then he was going to be able to talk with someone…_

_The minutes passed but nothing happened. Hao and Destiny didn't calm down and Jun didn't come back as well. He tried to read a book, but it didn't work out._

_'This getting really irritating!' he hissed to himself, then stood up and walked upstairs, where the noise came from. He was just two meters away from the door, when it suddnelly opened and Hao stormed out of it._

_'DAMN IT, WOMAN! YOU'RE SO FUCKING STUBBORN!' the pyro yelled and shut the door so hard that for a moment Ren thought it would breake._

_'Um…' Ren started but the words suddenly flew out of his head, leaving him to stare stupidly at Hao. The shaman looked at him with expectation and when he got no sensible sentence in return, just threw his hands in the air and walked passes the vampire._

_Ren stood still for a __moment then turned around and followed him._

_'God, that woman!' Hao shook his head 'She just doesn't know when to stop.'_

_'All the women are like this…' Ren murmured, remembering his sister's obsession to turn useless men into demons that shortly after that got killed or roasted… or killed themselves. 'Don't worry about it. She'll calm down and then I'll try to talk with her.'_

_'Don't bother.' Hao waved his hand absently 'I'll come after a week or so and try again. Though… I'm not really sure I can handle another screaming session like this one. Oh, damn… my ear-drums are aching like hell…'_

_'Do you want something to drink?' Ren offered. He was feeling quite sorry for the guy…_

_'Something strong… A bottle of it.' Hao asked, rubbing his eyebrows. Ren hesitated for a moment, then handed the pyro a large bottle of rum._

_'I have some more if you want.' The vampire said watching the shaman take a big sip from the bottle and frown after that._

_'She's really getting on my nerves, you know…' Hao sighed 'But that makes her… an animal in the bed.'_

_As he heard that, Ren suddenly choked with his own breath.._

_'Are you ok?' Hao asked and the vampire nodded. 'Well, anyway… I' gotta be going now. I'm already terribly late. Can I take the rum? Thank you.'_

_And with that he was gone._

* * *

_A week later…_

_Ren was walking down the busy street, thinking about Destiny. They were getting along pretty well. He had even let her walk around the house… of course, after making her swear like fifty times that she won't make any trouble, won't break anything and won't try to escape. But deep inside he didn't believe she wanted to escape at all. She had nowhere to go, she was a traveling thief. No house, no friend, no nothing. Besides… he liked having her around. Jun did too. The girls had become good friends for a short time… Sharing things, giggling, whispering secrets to each other…_

_As he walked pass a group of men, he suddenly stopped dead in his track. He could swear he just heard Hao's name._

_With the years he had become used to the supernatural hearing and he usually ignored the sound-wave that hit him every time he walked down a busy street. But now, he really __**did**__ catch the word "Hao"._

_He leaned against a wall nearby and listened carefully to what they said. After a word or two he realized they were shamans and were talking about the tournament._

_'I can't believe this is over!' one of them said 'It took so long to kick that maniac's ass! I was already starting to think that it's impossible.'_

_'Yeah, same with me… But now Hao's dead and everything's back to normal.' Another one answered._

_'I doubt he's completely gone. He'll be back. After a few generations he'll be back, trying to win the crown once again…' a third voice objected._

_'Let's not think about that, ok? Just… go and celebrate. I know a great place.'_

_And with that the three walked pass the vampire, leaving him to stare blankly into the space. He couldn't believe what he had just heard. Hao was kill? When did that happen? And how was Destiny going to take it? Was she going to leave when she found out?_

_He turned around and ran towards his home._

End of flashback.

'You know you want me! Just admit it!' Hao insisted walking after Jun down the long hall. She growled, then turned around harshly and snapped in his face:

'What's wrong with you? Stop following me around! I don't want you! Now leave me alone.' She once again continued to walk to her room.

'But you're lying! I know you are!' Hao stubbornly ran after her. 'Just say it!'

'Shut up!'

'I have no intention to do that.'

'Yeah, BIG surprise!' Jun murmured sarcastically. At that point they passed Destiny and Ren who were walking in the opposite direction.

'Come on, Destiny! I've heard people getting mad because of stupid things… but a tree?' Ren almost whined, though she didn't seem to listen, just continued walking forward.

'Similar situation.' Hao whispered as the couple disappeared somewhere behind.

'They'll be fine.' She smiled a bit 'Actually I'm pretty Destiny's doing it on purpose. She once told me her best nights were always after a fight...'

'That little vixen...' Hao nodded, but then they reached her room, she stormed inside and locked the door behind her. The pyro stared miserably in front of him, then started knocking and shouting: 'JUUUN! Lemme in!'

'No way in hell!' the vampire shouted back and threw herself on the bed. She was pretty sure he wasn't going to leave her alone.

"This is going to be a looooong night…" she thought with a sigh, then put a pillow on her face.

* * *

Hmmm... Not my best chapter... Anyway. I'll update as soon as I can. And I don't have to tell you that I haven't read it. 


	15. Invitations and smells

Flashback:

_'What…?' Destiny whispered, her eyes big and her lips slightly parted. 'B-but he… Are you sure?'_

_Ren nodded and while she was trying to take in what had happened, he pulled out a bottle of rum from the cupboard and filled a small glass. She really needed something to come to her senses. He wasn't sure if she had loved Hao, but at least he knew she had thought highly of him._

_'You ok?' Ren asked softly as he sat next to her on the sofa and handed her the drink. She took it and drained the glass…_

_'I… I'll be fine…' she answered blankly 'It's just… I can't get used to the thought…'_

_'Do you want to be alone?' Ren asked while patting her on the back. She took the bottle of rum from his hand and filled her glass for a second time. In the second it was empty again._

_'Where am I going to go now?' she murmured. Her blank look made Ren shiver._

_'What do you mean?'_

_'Hao won't come… I can't take advantage of you hospitality anymore!'_

_'Huh?' Ren looked at her oddly 'Don't tell me you're worried about that!'_

_'I…'_

_'You can stay here!' Ren blurred without thinking and a second later was looking at his toes to hide his quickly growing blush._

_'Are you serious?' Destiny asked carefully. Ren blushed even harder and nodded. There was a pause and then the Tao found himself lying on the sofa on his back and the girl (who had brought him down) had her hands tightly wrapped around his neck and her face buried in his shoulder._

_'Y-you… I-it's not b-big deal…' Ren murmured and gulped. He had no idea why he never felt embarrassed or shy when he was with some unknown girl and he did feel both now, with Destiny that was just hugging him._

_At that point someone cleared his/her throat and the two hurried to part. Jun was leaning against the doorframe with a devilish smile on her face._

_'Well, well, well… What have we got here?' she purred and folded her arms._

_'NOTHING!' Ren and Destiny shouted in unison. And then started explaining one after another in a way that it was really hard to understand them:_

_'I accidentally heard…'_

_'Hao's dead.'_

_'No place to stay!'_

_'I'm so thankful!'_

_'And she was thankful…'_

_'So a hug!'_

_'And you came.'_

_After a few minutes Jun finally managed to get what they were talking about. Though deep inside she couldn't help it but think that the two were really cute together. And according to her, her brother definitely needed a nice LONG relationship._

_"Destiny's perfect." Jun thought "Absolutely perfect. They're immortals, so they'll fall in love, and marry, and live happily ever after for ever and ever and will… "_

_'Anyway, how was your day?' Destiny interrupted her magnificent fairy-tale thoughts. Jun blinked a few times to get to her senses, then suddenly remembered that she had something to tell them. She pulled out three letters and handed them two of them._

_'Invitations.' She explained. 'Eliot sent them. He has a birthday and he's inviting to some ball in his house… It looks like fun. What do you think?'_

_'I think that I don't like the sound of that…' Ren announced, gllancing at the envelope with suspicion._

_'Well, he will do something else if we don't go and it might be really nasty…' Jun noted looking at him with angelic smile. Ren rolled his eyes._

_'You really want to go, don't you?' he asked. Jun hesitated for a moment. She could lie to him, but he was going to find out, thanks to his gift… So she nodded._

_'Yeah… I don't think this is a good idea. But… knowing you, you'll find a way to sneak out and go by yourself. God, I hate your obsession to "have fun"… Anyway. We'll go. We'll be careful and see what he wants… ' _

End of flashback.

'What's that smell?' Ren asked as he walked outside in the garden. He looked around, frowning slightly. His eyes went red and he slowly spun around.

'Ren, are you ok?' Yoh asked.

The weather was warm and he, Horo and Hao were having an early dinner in the garden. Dracula couldn't come yet, since the sun was still settling down and he needed full darkness to get outside.

'There's no smell.' Hao noted, looking at the vampire with suspicion. 'Ren?'

'No, there is smell… Some… sweet, heavy smell… How come you can't feel it? God… I feel sick… That damn smell…'

At that point Jun and Destiny walked outside in the garden. They stopped next to Ren and exchanged glances.

'What's that smell?' Jun asked worriedly. 'I've never smelt anything like it.'

'Me too.' Destiny added. 'Oh my… It's so heavy.'

Suddenly Ren fell on his knees, panting as if he couldn't catch his breath.

'Ren, what's wrong?' Destiny knelt next to him, a honest worry written on her face.

'Destiny… I… don't… feel so good…' he gulped and closed his red eyes. His face was all in sweat, as if he had a fever. And the girls were starting to feel sick as well.

'There's something wrong with that smell…' Jun said as she slowly fall on her knees beside Destiny.

Hao, Horo and Yoh hurried to see what was going on. The three vampires looked as if they were about to faint every minute or so. Their sweaty faces had gone even paler than usual and they were shaking. The pyro put his hand on Ren's forehead.

'He's burning.' Hao noted with a scowl.

'So are the ladies.' Horo said with worry. 'We should get them inside.'

'Damn… it… They…They…' Ren gulped and licked his dry lips 'I'm so stupid… They… did this… to us…'

'Who?' Hao asked and tried to made the vampire stand up. Ren looked up, looking at the pyro, his irises a deep shade of red.

'Eliot's minions.' And with that he passed out. A minute or so later so did the two girls.

'What are we going to do with them now?' Yoh asked. His twin put his hands on his hips and thoughtfully tilted his head to a side.

'First of all, we gotta get them inside. Vampires can't get inside a house without invitation. And I think we are going to get some vampire company soon enough.' The pyro said, then the gigantic hand of the Spirit of fire grabbed the three bodies and transported them inside the house. Ren, Jun and Destiny were put on three sofas in the living-room and left under the Dracula's cares.

Meanwhile Hao, Horo and Yoh were examining the yard. The pyro was sure there was someone around. And he really didn't want to be surprised. The vampires were nasty creatures, sneaking around, hiding in the shadows… making traps. He wanted to find the intruders before the sun had completely settled down, because the night was their time and their territory. They were in their strongest form then. Quiet, fast and cruel, they could jump out of nowhere and kill you before you can even scream.

But it was useless. They didn't find anyone. The sun settled down, and the lamps around the whole yard turned on. The shamans didn't have to wait too long. Two figures approached them, a man and a woman.

'Shamans!' the woman hissed. 'Simon, where are the vampires!'

'Calm down, Monika. They're probably inside. It seems we'll have to destroy the house to get them after we finish these three.' The man answered, his face showed only boredom. 'God, that idiot Ren! He doesn't know his power at all. If he did he would've known that the smell was a poison. Just as Eliot said…'

'Stop talking. We have shamans to kill.' Monika nodded towards Hao, Horo and Yoh.

* * *

'How do we beat them?' Yoh asked his twin. Hao thought for a moment before answering.

'Cut their heads off.' The pyro explained casually, getting very terrified looks from the other two 'Or you could just jab them into the heart with something. Does it sound better to you?'

'Much better.' Yoh agreed, pulling his sword out. 'But can't we like... not kill them?'

'I don't think so. Eliot's going to kill them very slowly and painfully if we leave them be.' Hao paused for a second 'You know what's the worst thing about vampires? You can torture them for years and they cannot die. Even Ren, as a human, was unusually tough. En found out that rather quickly...' Hao cleared his throat 'Anyway, concentrate now. We've got vampires to kill.'

* * *

Well, what do you think? 


	16. Burns, Explosions and Fangs

Simon was a tall slim man with very sickly expression. His features were sharp and his cheek-bones were unusually protruding. His eyes were a dead grey color and his lips were thin and almost white. His expression was calm and uninterested and the way he looked at the shamans was quite creepy. Simon was wearing all grey clothes, a tie in grey and white and black boots.

Monica on the other hand was a tall hot girl with long curly blond hair and sunglasses on the top of her head… which was rather strange since she never got outside during the day. Her eyes were a pale shade of blue, with long black lashes to enhance their beautiful color. Her full lips were amazingly seductive and she had painted her claws in dark red. She was wearing jeans and a tight red blouse with a low neck and long sleeves.

'What do they do?' Horo asked, pulling out the Ikupasi(sp?) out of his pocket. Hao thought for a moment.

'I'm not sure but that _smell_ Ren, Destiny and Jun felt was a poison that works only on vampires. And I think one of them has a gift that helps them produce it.'

'Which one? The creepy guy or the hottie?' Horo questioned again, his weapon now wrapped in the pale blue flames of his furioku(?).

'No idea.' Hao murmured with a trace of irritation in his voice.

'Whatever. We're going to kick their asses anyway.' The Ainu announced proudly but his wide grin immediately disappeared as a small red glowing ball landed in his feet. The blue-haired shaman blinked stupidly and opened his mouth to say something, when suddenly Hao shouted at the top of his lungs:

'MOVE!' with that the pyro grabbed Horo's collar form behind and pulled him harshly away from the tiny ball. A few seconds later it exploded, luckily not making much damage.

'That was just to get your attention.' Monika explained with a smile as she stretched her hand towards them, her palm flat and then closed it with her other palm. When she removed the palm on the top, they saw a tiny ball just like the one that had landed in Horo's feet.

'Say cheese!' Monika called out and threw the ball at Yoh. The brunette barely managed to jump away, when it exploded, a big cloud of dust surrounding the three.

'I can't see them.' Simon murmured and narrowed his grey emotionless eyes, hoping to see more clearly. It didn't work out. He frowned slightly and opened his mouth to scold his sister, when suddenly Hao jumped out of the cloud, his crimson sword above his head. Simon barely dodged the attack, but another one followed right after, almost hitting him. The vampire growled, baring his fangs and lifted his clawed hand, ready to strike. The pyro just smirked and charged at him. Simon moved to away, but his hand locked around the shaman's left wrist. Hao stopped, looking at the other one oddly and was about to say something, when he felt a burning pain, where Simon held him.

'WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING!' Hao yelled and tried to pull his hand away, but the move was way more difficult and weak than he expected. Simon smirked, his now crimson eyes sparking strangely.

'Damn you all!' Hao hissed and lifted his suddenly heavier sword above the vampire's hand and almost managing to cut it off. However Simon let go of him in the last moment, jumping back much more energetically than before. Hao looked down at his hand. The place the vampire had held him looked like it was burned. But the pyro knew he could not burn. He looked up, anger clear in his brown eyes.

'I should've guessed. You suck energy.' The shaman held the sword with both hands, ignoring the pain in his left wrist.

'I also produce a special poison for vampires.' Simon added with a calm low voice. 'And after we're done with you three, we'll take the three pranksters from the house… Eliot is waiting for the boy.'

'I don't get it. Eliot can't make Ren work for him, why the trouble? It's no use.' Hao noted as he narrowed his eyes against his opponent and tried to make the vampire burn. However nothing happened. Simon just smiled lazily.

'First of all, you can't make me or my sister burn and second, I thought you were smarter.' Simon dodged the pyro's next attack and managed to grab his arm for a second 'Mmm… Your energy is really tasty. Anyway… Eliot did offer the trio to join his side but since they refused, he'll take what he wants from them in another way.'

'Yeah, and what would that be?' Hao asked, glancing at the "burn" on his arm. He felt as if he hadn't slept for days.

* * *

Inside… 

'I'm all right.' Ren insisted and sat up, ignoring Dracula's loud objections and the way everything was spinning around.

'You surely are not!' Vlad called, reaching forward and pushing the younger vampire back on the sofa. 'I can't believe you're already conscious! You should rest. You don't want to kill yourself, do you?'

Ren glared at him and looked at the window.

'What's going on out there? My senses aren't working.' He murmured. Dracula frowned at the sick look on Ren's face. He didn't want to make him worry, but if he didn't tell him, the Tao would most likely go and see himself. And Vlad didn't want him to stand up. The younger vampire looked as if he was going to faint every minute now.

'They're fighting.' Vlad explained softly. 'Now lie down.'

'Who with?'

'Well… I-I… Simon and Monika.'

'WHAT?' Ren immediately jumped out of the bed and immediately staggered back. Vlad stood up and caught him.

'Damn it…' Ren whispered, squeezing his eyes. 'They need me.'

'I don't get it! Every ordinary vampire would've been unconscious. Look at the girls!' Vlad murmured, helping Ren to lie down again.

'I'm not an ordinary vampire.' Ren noted dryly.

'Yes, but if you fight like this' you'll die.'

'I'm already dead. And I can't let them lose their lives for someone that isn't even alive…'

* * *

Meanwhile… 

'I don't like her anymore.' Horo noted as the next bomb destroyed his spirit control once again. He had to protect himself so he built a shield every time he didn't manage to get away from the little glowing ball that could be really pretty if it didn't explode. Now, the two shamans were running out of furioku.

"Not much left…" the Ainu thought with a scowl.

'I agree.' Yoh murmured, then took a deep breath before charging at Monika. But before he could reach her, she started throwing bombs at him. He didn't get even close, when he had to lie low and cover himself with his shield. They were trying to get close to the girl for quite some time and the results weren't very promising. And the garden was ruined. Little craters everywhere, clouds of dust that didn't let them see properly and pieces of ground and grass falling from the open sky once a bomb had exploded. In other words – things were really bad.

A small glowing ball landed in front of Yoh's nose and his eyes fixing with fear on it. He hurried to stand up but tripped and fell backwards.

'Not. Cool.' He murmured, but then suddenly a hand grabbed the back of his collar and in a second he was thrown in the open air, landing on the grass, few meters away. A second or so later the bomb exploded. Yoh managed to sit up and looked at the giant crater with his eyes wide open.

'Are you ok?' A voice asked as his older twin approached him.

'Oh, God! What happened to you?' Yoh whispered as Hao fell on his knees next to him. His arms were covered with burns; there was one on his shoulder and a big one on his angle. He was panting and he was all covered with cold sweat.

'I'm… all right…' the pyro managed to say and slightly shook his head. 'Damn that… Simon…' his crimson sword vanished.

'Hao…' Horo run to them a look of sincere concern on his face as he looked at his former enemy. He and Yoh had almost run out of furioku and if Hao wasn't in good shape that was bad... really bad.

'I'll be fine!' Hao repeated a bit irritated now.

'You saved Yoh!'

'Shut up, blueberry.'

At that point Simon appeared from a cloud of dust. He looked a lot different from before: more energetic, more alive…

'Tasty…' Monika's brother noted, licking his lips. There was a new dangerous flame in his eyes that hadn't been there before.

His sister appeared next to him, a big smirk on her face.

'Not. Cool.' Yoh murmured for a second time that evening.

Hao's eyes were looking at Simon up and down as if searching for a weak spot.

'Yoh, blueberry, don't move.' He whispered 'I need them to come closer.'

'Um… ok.' The Ainu knelt next to them 'What are we doing?'

'We're killing them.' Hao answered simply. He looked the two in a way that made them understand.

'There's some more left.' Simon noted as he and his sister approached the trio. He smirked at Hao 'Let me have it! Your fire energy!' he stretched his hand towards the pyro.

'Moron.' The older Asakura twin murmured. A crimson sword appeared in his hand, and within a second the blade had went straight through Simon's heart.

'I'm not that easy to kill.' The pyro said as the vampire turned into dust. Meanwhile Yoh and Horo had their weapons pointed at Monika's heart.

'What are you doing?' Hao snapped 'Kill her already!'

'We can't!' The Ainu hissed. Hao then noticed that Monika was holding a small glowing ball.

'If I drop this, we all go to hell!' she noted, glancing at the two blades, pointed at her chest 'So careful with the swords.'

'Not. Cool.' Yoh noted.

'Hey, vampire.' Hao suddenly called 'Tell me, what's Eliot after?'

'He sends us to get Ren and the girls.' She answered calmly 'If we don't succeed, at least the Tao will get stronger.'

'Why would Eliot want Ren to get stronger?'

'Because…' Monika hesitated for a moment, then added softly 'He wants Ren's fangs.'

'WHAT?' Hao yelled 'He's insane! Does he want Jun and Destiny's fangs too?'

Monika nodded. The pyro looked shocked and didn't say anything for a while. His mind was desperately trying to consume the new information.

'What's that suppose to mean?' Yoh asked 'And what are we doing with the bomb?'

'Let me go.' Monika asked them 'And I won't drop it.'

'Eliot will find you, torture you and kill you.' Hao noted dryly, still quite distracted with the news. She blinked a couple of times, painful realization clear in her eyes, then she sighed.

'You're right… I haven't thought of that.' suddenly a determined expression appeared on her face 'I have nothing to lose then.'

With that she dropped the ball. The shamans were looking at it with fear as it was falling to the ground.

Only, instead of exploding, it stopped a few centimeters before reaching the soft soil. The shamans looked at it with confusion, as it floated in the air, almost touching the ground. Then suddenly the ball trembled and turned into dust.

'Are you ok, guys?' Ren asked. He was leaning on the doorframe with a tired expression on his face.

'We're fine.' Horo replyed with a relieved smile, before stabbing the vampire in front of him and turning her into dust.

* * *

Hope you like it. I haven't checked it. Review. 


	17. I swear

Flashback:

_'I can't believe we're here...' Ren murmured. 'Jun, if some of us gets hurt it will be all your fault!_

_'Yeah… sure…' his sister just shrugged._

_The three were standing in front of a giant two-stored house with a nice well-tend yard. Many people passed the trio: all of them wealthy well-dressed vampires. Ren was quite surprised that, just like he and the two girls, most of them were wearing clothes that were modern in England._

_Ren shivered slightly. He wasn't feeling comfortably. Most of the guests looked at him rather oddly, possibly sensing the unusual aura around him. He just hated that…_

_Ren groaned and pulled the hood of his black cloak up to hide his face as much as possible._

_'It will be ok. What can possibly happen that we can't handle?' Jun asked, raising an eyebrow. Ren glanced at one of the passing vampires that had stopped and was now staring at him._

_'What're you looking at?' the Tao snapped, baring his fang and growling slightly. The unknown vampire frowned, murmured something and then once again made his way towards the house._

_'Calm down.' Destiny told him softly and put her delicate little hand on his shoulder. She looked gorgeous in her long deep blue evening dress. A pair of gloves, a silky scarf and nice little boots completed her clothing. She had her hair put in a bun, with one inky lock left to hang freely next to her ear. No make-up at all. But then again, she didn't need it, did she? Destiny looked like a goddess anyway._

_'__This is Eliot we're talking about here!' Ren folded his arms as his gaze traced the yard. He couldn't find anything wrong with it – not traps, no guards, no nothing. Weird. Really weird… This was all too… normal…_

_'So… This Eliot is the one who turned you into vampires?' Destiny asked, revising what they had told her._

_'Yes, he is. He also caused us lots of trouble. So you better be careful what you say and what you do.' Ren warned her. Jun just rolled her eyes behind his back._

_'But why was there an invitation for me too? How did he know I was with you?' Destiny questioned again._

_'He has his ways. He's always informed. Let's say he's sort of… VIV.' Jun replied, looking at her claws._

_'What's VIV?' the other girl raised an eyebrow. The Tao siblings exchanged glances, then answered in unison:_

_'Very Important Vampire.'_

_Destiny looked at them oddly._

_'Meaning,' the boy continued 'he's a person with lots of power. So, once again, be careful.'_

_'Aren't we going already?' Jun put her hands on her hips. She was wearing green dress with light green patterns. Her silver locks fell freely down her back and shoulders and that kind of irritated her brother, but he didn't say a thing, knowing it would be useless. Beautiful pair of silver ear-rings and a necklace and she looked like a big glowing target for every male in the whole neighborhood._

_'Sure.' Ren sighed, then started to make his way towards the house. The girls followed right behind._

_Most of the guests had already arrived and when the giant double doors opened with a soft creak, many vampires turned around intuitively to see who that was. Three figures entered the house. A tall man with a black cloak and two beautiful ladies. Immediately the strange aura of the man caused a wave of whispers and gasps._

_Ren calmly made his way through the crowd, followed by the girls. The vampires pulled away from him as he continued walking towards the ten main figures in the hall._

_'I didn't quite expect him to come…'Ian noted, taking a sip from his wine._

_'Neither did I.' Leon agreed, his grey eyes never leaving the famous Tao heir that without any hesitation walked straight to Eliot._

_Leon looked no more than thirty. He had a serious face, thin lips, sharp features and long fair hair. The worried expression never left his still face._

_'I really have no idea why he invited them anyway...' Leon added, a scowl appearing on his face._

* * *

_'Well, well, well… Look who's here!' Eliot exclaimed, a large smile on his face as he put down his glass and approached Ren._

_The Tao pulled down his hood and almost every guest in the hall gasped and started whispering. That made the other vampire chuckle softly and shake his head._

_The sight of the two standing against each other was rather unusual. Eliot was slim and tall, yet muscular. A handsome man, no doubt. He looked no more than seventeen, with long eye-lashes and soft features. He had pale blue eyes and spiky bright red hair… a single inky lock hanging freely next to his cheek, almost touching his shoulder._

_'I was beginning to think you wouldn't come…' Eliot told his guest, his voice sounding a bit lazy._

_'I couldn't miss the opportunity to visit you.' Ren answered calmly. 'How's the party?'_

_'Nice.' Eliot answered simply 'And how's Hao's girlfriend? How did she take the news about his death?'_

_'This is not why you invited me.' Ren said with a scowl 'Tell me what do you want with me? I told you, I won't work for you. Ever!'_

_'Why do you keep refusing!' Eliot threw his hands in the air 'Besides, I made you the way you're now! You should be grateful! You should at least listen to me!'_

_'I don't like listening to anybody.' Ren answered firmly._

_'Yeah, yeah… Sure.' Eliot rolled his eyes 'However... I can teach you so much! You have no idea how much more there is to learn! Why do you keep turning down my offers!?'_

_'Why do you keep proposing me?'_

_'You're so damn stubborn!'_

_'So are you.'_

_'This is useless.' Eliot noted, slightly rubbing his temples 'You know, you are the only person in the whole universe that can give me such a headache.'_

_'I'll take that as a compliment.' Ren answered dryly._

_'Look, I need to show you something.' Eliot said seriously 'And I need you to come with me. It's very important.'_

_Ren scowled, then glanced at the girls who were talking with some other guests._

_'Don't worry.' Eliot immediately told him 'They won't be harmed. Neither will be you. I haven't invited you her to do anything to you.'_

_'You swear?'_

_'I swear!' Eliot nodded. And he wasn't lying. Vampires never broke promises._

End of flashback.

'How are you feeling today?' Jun asked as a bandaged Hao finished his cup of tea. She had been taking care of him for the last few days. His burns were really bad and he hadn't left the bed since the fight. So now she was bringing him food, drinks, books, newspapers... the remote control... She was like a nurse. Only no one payed her to do all these things.

'Better.' He told her, a playful smile on his face 'It's nice having a nice, beautiful dead girl to take care of you…'

Jun sulked and folded her arms.

'Shut up.'

'Do you really want me to?'

Jun stood quiet for a moment then sighed. The true was that during the last few days she had spent near Hao's bed she had found talking with him was rather... nice.

'Ok, may be I don't.' she admitted softly. He chuckled softly and shook his head. There was a pause then Jun looked at her fingernails and said with a bit difficulty:

'You know… What you did… was really brave…'

Hao didn't say anything for awhile. His chocolate eyes were examining the vampire.

'Don't mention it.' He told her softly and then added out of the blue 'How about we play a game?'

'What kind of game?' she asked suspiciously.

'We'll play cards. If you lose, you give me a kiss, if I lose, I give you a kiss…'

Jun's eyes widened a bit, then she sulked and lightly hit his arm, afraid to actually hurt him.

'Shut up!' she murmured, then stood from her chair and made her way towards the door.

'Hey, hey!' the pyro called after her 'Where're you going? I still need someone to take care of me!'

'Don't worry about that.' Jun answered, as she opened the door 'I'll send you Vlad.'

'But...' Hao looked at her desperately.

Jun sighed and after a second of thinking added:

'We'll play cards some other time... when you're completely healed.' and with a devilish smirk she closed the door behind her, leaving a very cheerful Hao behind her.

* * *

Sorry guys, but I'll probably update a little slower these days, cuz I've got a guest from another town and I don't have much time. Anyway, tell me what you think about this chapter. 


	18. Pictures

'I kind of need an explanation…' Horo said out of the blue as they were sitting in the now pretty much fixed yard, drinking tea, coffee or… AB positive. All of them had spent the last few days training and recovering. Ren was still desperately trying to find Eliot's location, but he failed miserably. His powers were more or less unstable and he trained more than everybody else to regain his control over them after sixteen years of unusing…

The true was that they all hadn't had the time to talk normally since the fight with the siblings. It was rather creepy how they just grabbed something from the fridge or the table and ran off somewhere, saying only a dry "Hi" and an even drier "I gotta go now". Almost as if they didn't know each other.

So now, when they were finally we together, Yoh and Horo had some questions to ask.

'What kind of explanation?' Ren asked, looking over the edge of his mug.

'Well… What did that Monika mean when she said Eliot wanted your teeth?' Yoh lazily sat back in his chair.

'My _fangs_.' The Tao corrected with a slight frown and licked the crimson liquid off his lips, his milk-white fangs in-question showing in the process.

'Yeah, whatever. Are you going to tell us?' Horo finished his drink and folded his arms. Ren looked at him blankly, slightly tilting his head to a side. When he spoke his low calm voice sent shivers down Yoh and Horo's spines:

'If you pull out a vampire's fangs… or any other tooth it grows up fast. But if Eliot, say, sucks all my blood and then pulls out my fangs, he'll gain my powers.' Ren paused for a second 'Vampires steal the powers of their fellows very rare, actually…'

'Why's that?' Yoh asked. This time his twin brother answered:

'It's considered rather pathetic to steal another one's powers. Especially since you most likely will be able to do that only with someone weaker than you… Why the hell would anyone want a gift that's weaker than his/her own?' with that the still bandaged pyro shook his head and without hesitation placed his hand on Jun's tight (she was sitting next to him). The girl choked with her drink and slapped his hand cruelly. He pulled away, a painful expression on his face and murmured something under his breath.

'Dude, this is gross…' Horo noticed, wrinkling his nose.

'Shut up, blueberry.' Hao snapped, glaring at the Ainu.

'Don't call me blueberry!' Horo replied almost by habit. No one paid attention to his protests anyway. Destiny even accidentally called him "blueberry" one morning and though she hurried to apologize, it was still rather irritating to know that the people around you don't mind to think of you and call you a fruit… That damn Hao…

'So… what're we going to do?' Yoh looked at Ren with expectation.

'I-I'm not sure… just yet.' The vampire answered, slightly bowing his head 'I'm in such a bad shape compare to what I was sixteen years ago… I can't even heal other people…' he looked at Hao apologetically 'Sixteen years ago I would've healed you in a second… I…' he sighed and looked down, before adding softly 'I'm so sorry for what happened… It's all my fault you got hurt… If I wasn't so weak…'

'It's ok, dude. Don't blame yourself! You're our friend and always will be. Even when I point a chop stick at you… Friends protect each other. It's natural.' Horo told him. Yoh immediately nodded.

'We came with you because we wanted to. We fought for you, because we wanted to. We knew what risks we took. It didn't matter. We know you would've done the same for us.' The younger Asakura added with a warm smile.

'You're my buddy.' Was the only thing Hao said before once again groping Jun and earning a punch in the arm.

Ren stood silent for a moment, his inky locks casting a shadow that hid his eyes.

'I'm going to train.' He murmured, before standing up and walking away.

'I'll never understand that guy…' Horo noted, looking at the disappearing figure in black cloak. Hao let out a deep chuckle.

'He's touched, blueberry.' He answered simply 'But he doesn't want you to see it.'

'Do you think he's worried?' Yoh asked 'About this toothy-thingy.'

'Uh… I don't know. And don't call it "toothy-thingy"!' Destiny said dryly.

'I wonder why everybody is so obsessed with power…' Yoh noted and everybody stopped doing whatever they where doing and started staring at him 'What?'

'Hopeless.' Hao concluded and they all went back to what they were doing before that.

'Absolutely.' Jun agreed but after a moment added 'However it's not only about my brother's power…'

'Yeah? And what else?' Hao asked rather surprised and reached to grope her tight but she saw him and slapped his hand hard.

'Stop it, Asakura!' she hissed. Hao sulked as he held his throbing hand.

'Jun, focus! What were you trying to tell us!?' Horo interfered impatiently. The vampire glared at the pyro for the last time before once again turning her attention towards the others.

'Well, when they cursed us…' she paused for a second 'They put a curse on Eliot and his group as well… They cannot turn people into vampires. And there's that… hypothesis that older vampires make stronger vampires… So… um… If Eliot sucks Ren's blood and pulls his fangs out, he'll gain not only his power but also the ability of a six hundred-year-old vampire to turn people into his fellows.'

'Question.' Yoh called, raising his hand 'I still don't quite get what's with the "curse" part…'

'You'll find out soon enough.' Jun assured him 'There's much story left.'

Flashback:

_'What the hell is __**this**__?' Ren almost shouted a deep frown on his face. Eliot had taken him to another room deep into the house, far away from the giant hall. It was a rather big room with no furniture a small window with black curtains and many candlesticks to balance the lack of light._

_'My wife. Melanie.' Eliot said, folding his arms as the other vampire slowly spun around, his eyes wide with shock and his lips slightly parted._

_'Did she… do all this?' Ren managed to murmur. All the walls, the floor and the ceiling were turned into some sort of giant pictures. He walked towards the nearest wall and slightly touched it. His fingers slowly traced the black line, before he pulled away his hand and stepped back._

_'This is me.' He said, his voice low and full with confusion 'But… I'm not… a vampire… How's that possible?'_

_'Melanie is a very special woman. You know that, don't you?' Eliot walked forward until he was next to the other vampire._

_'Meaning she's crazy?' Ren laughed dryly but the red-haired one ignored him._

_'Part of her gift is the rare ability to see in the future. Unfortunately she has visions very rarely. And most of the time they are really unclear so it's hard to understand them. But… a few days ago she locked herself into this room and left it only when she was done painting. She didn't explain anything… she never does. So I had to find myself what the pictures mean. According to me the story starts from here and goes like this…'_

_The first pictures showed a rather strange scene. There were two figures which looked very much like undead men and an old woman a few meters away from them. The zombies were holding a tall lad. He was shirtless, barefooted and had his wrists tied up behind his back. He looked exhausted and his body was covered with dark bruises and cuts. His head was bowed and his eyes were hidden into the shadow his inky locks created. A tall black-haired man with sharp features and serious clod expression was standing in front of the lad, his piercing eyes examining him almost as if he was some sort of an item in a magazine._

_'The boy seeming familiar?' Eliot asked smirking as he glanced at Ren's pale face._

_'This can't be possible…' he whispered 'I will not ever let the Tao clan capture me! It has to be… a lie…'_

_'Ren Tao, I swear this is NOT a lie! It's not a joke, it's serious and it's your future!' Eliot insisted._

_'My __**future**__? What kind of future is this?' Ren almost shouted, his gaze shifting towards the next picture._

_'This is you again. Looking like annoying brat, though… I have no idea why but you aren't a vamp here. Oh and... What's with the hair?' Eliot pointed at a Ren that looked no more than fourteen years old… and very much a human. He was wearing short black pants, a yellow coat and had his hair up in a tongari. His weapon – a halberd – was crossed with the sword of another boy around his age with chocolate brown eyes and brown hair that almost reached his shoulders. They were obviously fighting on some sort of a graveyard… and they were fighting pretty hard._

_'Shamans, shamans, shamans…' Eliot murmured rather bored 'And what's this? Looks like Jun. Well, sort of… I didn't know she had a green hair originally.'_

_Then there was the third picture. It was a cage in a dungeon. On one of the walls was chained an injured Ren and across from him was chained his sister._

_The Tao had almost forgotten how Jun had looked one hundred years ago, as a normal human being. Green hair, dark blue eyes, light pink lips… No fangs…_

_It seemed so long ago…_

_Like the life of another person..._

_The forth pictured showed a group of people that contained Ren, the brunette, a boy with spiky blue hair and a tall guy with really weird hair-cut. They looked like they were traveling somewhere through a dessert. And they were dieing for a little water as well…_

_'What the hell am I doing with the kid I fought with? Are you sure this is the right order?' Ren raised an eyebrow._

_'Seems right to me.' Eliot said with a shrug._

_The picture on the ceiling was of the same group but with some new members in it. It seemed like they were fighting in front of a… giant… light that connected the sky and the ground._

_'I wonder if this is the Great Spirit… I've never seen it. Can it really be that powerful as they say?!?' Ren murmured slightly tilting his head to a side as he examined the picture. Eliot's deep chuckle filled his ears._

_'That's your shaman side, talking…' he noticed, a rather amused expression on his face. Ren glared at him, before once again turning his attention to the ceiling._

_The group was fighting against a boy that looked very much like the brunette from the previous pictures. The only difference was the length of the hair. He new boy's almost reached the back of his knees. There was something about that long-haired guy… that seemed very familiar… But Ren couldn't quite get what it was…_

_The Tao then looked down to the last one._

_'Move, your foot is in the way.' Ren told the other vampire as he found himself staring at a very strange scene. A slightly older Ren with his hair down and a very tired expression on his face was standing in some sort of a room. The bluenette and the brunette were watching as a blond girl was pulling out of a inky cluster of the Tao's hair a single crimson lock._

_'This is stupid.' Ren murmured, slightly shaking his head 'You probably messed up the order…'_

_'Actually I'm pretty sure I'm right.' Eliot objected._

_Ren lifted his eyes from the floor and looked at the other vampire very suspiciously._

_'Why are you showing this to me?' he asked, his voice low._

_'I don't have any interest in you becoming a human again.' Eliot explained without hesitation 'You're very important to be lost like this, Ren. Besides… I managed to make Melanie tell me something: this is going to happen about thirteen or fourteen years before the tournament and… only if you continue to turn down my offers to join me.'_

_'Ahh…' Ren almost laughed 'So that's what this is about. I should've guessed…'_

_'Damn it, Ren! Do you know what we can do with our powers?' Eliot insisted and as he continued to speak, his voice slowly began to become louder 'We could have everything we want to, everything we wish to! We could get rid of all those shamans that protect the human and the spirit world and what they call the "__**balance**__", we could… get rid of that DAMN Shaman king that keeps us, the vampires away from the ultimate power and the ruling of…'_

_'You're insane.' Ren calmly cut him off, before turning around and making his way towards the door._

_'I'm not insane! I'm just seeing opportunities!' Eliot called 'Come on, Ren, aren't you tired of hiding? Aren't you tired of keeping this stupid secret about being something MORE!' he stopped, seeing that the Tao wasn't listening 'Just… think of it. Think of it. That's all I want from you.'_

_Ren sighed as he opened the door and without turning around said:_

_'Thank you for warning me. And about your offer… there's nothing to think about. Now lets go to the hall. You're the one that organized the party, you shouldn't be absent.'_

* * *

_'Weird.' Jun noted when her brother finished talking 'But he really swore, right? So he's not lying. Vampires always keep their promises.'_

_'I know.' Ren drained his glass of wine as he looked at Destiny dancing with some young vampire 'But there's so much time… five hundred years... Well, I guess she got a vision connected with the next shaman tournament, because one tournament has just finished.'_

_'Sounds logically to me.' His sister agreed 'But the vision still is rather… strange… I can't believe that we can actually get captured.'_

_'I know.'_

_'May be we aren't reading it right?'_

_'Mmmaybe. I don't know.'_

_They both went silent for a while until some lad came to invite Jun for a dance. When she was gone, Ren let out a sigh and glanced at Eliot. The red-haired vampire wasn't going to do anything to him tonight. Noone was going to hurt him or his sister... or Destiny._

_"I should relax and have some fun..." he decided as he walked stright towards Destiny, who had just finished dancing and invited her to a dance himself. She immediately agreed and took his offered hand with the smile. They spend the rest of the night dancing, laughing and having fun. All the worries were gone somewhere far away into the open space..._

_All Ren remembered one morning after a month or so was that he had woken up in his home next to the most beautiful girl in the whole world..._

End of flashback.

* * *

Heeeey! My friend left so now I'll probably have more time to update. Anyway, tell me what you think. I don't really like this chapter but... anyway. Review. 


	19. Library

Yoh wandered around the library rather distractedly, his eyes never really landing on the titles of the books. Jun had insisted that they visit this place before getting back home and since Hao was desperately trying to make her fall for him, it was two against one so they went inside.

"But this is almost ruining the whole walk around the town!" Yoh thought with a sigh. He had had such a great time until now...

The younger Asakura wasn't really interested in books and stuff (and he suspected that his twin wasn't either no matter how he acted in front of Jun). The dark stuffy library, full with bookcases and suffocating silence was slowly ruining his mood. Yoh wanted to get out. He glanced at his brother and Jun Tao who were sitting on some table and let out a desperate sigh. The girl was quietly but very enthusiastically explaining something to Hao and pointing to some thick brown book that looked like some truck had went straight through it… and not only once. The pyro was nodding as if he understood everything completely, though Yoh was more than sure he wasn't listening to what she was saying at all. Hao was way more occupied staring at the gorgeous vampire without being kicked, punched or yelled at.

'They aren't going to leave any time soon…' Yoh murmured and once again begun wandering around the library, lost in his own strange thoughts. After about fifteen minutes he got bored and without paying attention grabbed the nearest book and opened it somewhere in the middle. It was some sort of historical book or something... Mostly about people's superstition. How stupid… He turned the page and scanned the next one. Nothing interesting… Another two pages and he found himself reading some sort of letter about something that had happened about… three hundred and fifty or four hundred years ago.

"…_I couldn't believe it at first. It was impossible. I had never seen or heard of something like that. The two fighting men didn't use only their fists and blades to hurt each other. There was something else. Some power around them… It seemed like the ground shook on their command and the sky turned pitch black when they wanted to._

_All the villagers hid in their houses from fear of what could happen to them. Many of them assumed that the two were devils from the burning Hell itself, but still… many reminded near the keyholes and the windows, curious to find out who the strangers were._

_The two fighting men looked completely opposite, yet alike. The first one had scandalously red hair that formed disturbing spikes and the other one's hair was with the color of ink. Since we didn't know how they were called we named the first lad The Bloody one and the other lad, The Dark one…_"

Yoh ran towards his brother and the vampire and slammed the book on the table I front of them, making them jump in the air.

'Someone, please explain.' He insisted, pointing at the text 'Is this when the rumors about The Dark one started? When these two almost destroyed a whole village?'

Jun blinked few times then slowly looked down, her eyes consuming the words fast.

'This… I can't believe someone actually wrote about that.' She managed to say after a moment of hesitation 'It was the first time Eliot and Ren fought…'

'An earthquake, a thunderstorm, a flood, fires…' Yoh slowly shook his head in disbelieve 'Is this what's going to happen the next time they meet?'

'It wasn't Ren's fault!' Jun insisted.

Yoh took a deep breath and sat on the nearest chair opposite of them.

'Tell me what happened.' He asked softly. Jun sighed and rubbed her temples.

'About three hundred or four hundred years ago we went to that same village. At that time Ren and Destiny were really close. The three of us were a team. Always together, no matter what happened. We hadn't seen Eliot in ages, though we heard of him all the time.' She paused for a moment before continuing a bit more quietly 'Eliot is a demon. A powerful demon, that is. He gave up on his human side almost the moment he turned into a vampire. He doesn't feel guilt, sadness, love… The murder for him is something usual, even entertaining. Ren on the other hand… He does everything to hold back his demon side. And… That's what Eliot used back then.'

'What do you mean?' Yoh asked.

'Eliot wanted to teach Ren a lesson. So he attacked my brother without warning in the middle of some squire. Their fight lasted very long. It was hard to tell who was going to win, though I must admit I didn't think Ren was going to be victorious. His opponent knew much more about his power to lose... But Eliot was also inpatient. He captured some ten-year-old child and threatened to kill it if Ren didn't stop fighting.'

'And he really did it?' Hao asked, raising an eyebrow. She nodded.

'They made a deal. Eliot wouldn't hurt any of the villagers and Ren would give up and stop fighting back.' Jun explained. 'Then that damn red-head beat up my brother. Ren didn't defend himself… Vampires never break promises.'

'Where were you and Destiny at that time?' Yoh questioned a small scowl on his face.

'We were busy fighting _four_ of Eliot's minions.' The Tao rubbed her temples and let out a quiet sigh 'We couldn't help him…'

Hao patted her softly on the back, trying to make her feel better. She took deep breath before continuing:

'Ren was already losing conscious when Eliot bent over him and said "Next time I won't be so generous. It will be either you… or them.". He pointed at me and Destiny, then at the villagers. Damn red-head. He did keep his promise and didn't hurt anyone, but made sure to ruin the people's lives by bringing disasters like fires, floods and earthquakes…'

'Such a good memory!' a voice rang and a tall lad with a tight black ninja costume and a sword hanging beside his thigh dragged the librarian from behind one of the bookcases. Blood was dripping down his chin as he dropped the limp body on the floor and smiled at the three showing them his long sharp fangs.

'You didn't sense him?' Yoh exclaimed dumbfounded looking at the Tao across of him.

'Jun Tao has always had bad senses. She didn't even notice when the sun settled down.' The ninja purred, stepping over the body and pulling out his sword 'Besides… she was way too busy remembering bad events. Isn't that right, sweety? Mmmm… Still the same beauty, I see.' He wiped his mouth with his sleeve then his lips curved into a rather creepy smile. He licked them and added 'I'd gladly have a taste of you after we're done…'

Hao abruptly stood up, his eyes narrowed angrily and his jaw clenched. His twin looked at him rather surprised, but didn't say a word. However Jun immediately grabbed the edge of his poncho and pulled him back down on his seat, though she could do nothing to make him stop glaring at the stranger.

'Eliot decided to try another tactic.' The ninja announced, without paying attention to the pyro's actions 'Knowing Ren's dominating human side, he ordered as to capture some of his friends...'

'Gaaaaaaaaaarry, we're bored!' a new voice complied as two boys appeared next to the ninja. They seemed to be twins, since they looked absolutely identical, aside from the fact that the first one had dark green hair and the other one had a light blue one. They were pretty short – may be 1.65 meters, with big green eyes, soft almost childish features and thin lips. They wore t-shirts and short jeans with some chains hanging down from their belts. Both had their hair tied up in a loose pony-tails.

'For who don't know us – I'm Garry.' The ninja slightly bowed his head 'The green-haired dude is Mick and the other one's Nick.'

Yoh sweatdroped.

'Mick and Nick?' he murmured 'Wow… a WHOLE letter difference!'

'Pathetic…' Mick begun.

'…Human being.' Nick finished for him.

'How dare you…'

'…Insult us…'

'…You're going to pay…'

'…Dearly.'

'That was creepy.' Yoh murmured to his twin 'I'm so glad we don't talk like that.'

'Yep, me too.' Hao agreed looking at the two short vampires oddly.

'Enough of that!' Garry lifted his sword horizontally in front of his face and smirked 'Let's fight! I wanna see the sexy lady over here in action.'

'What? In a library?' Jun raised an eyebrow as she stood up and put her hands on her hips 'There's no place here.'

Garry lowered his sword, sweatdroping.

'Yeah… Good point. Let's go outside.'

* * *

Few minutes later… 

'Ok… You two twins are fighting… urrrr… the twins and I'm taking Garry.' Jun commanded as her eyes turned red. They were all standing at the back of the library on some deserted playground. Yoh and Hao exchanged glances, then turned their gazes towards the other pair of identical boys with a slight hair difference.

'Ok, sweetheart, show me what you've got.' Garry challenged Jun, his eyes turning crimson just like hers had a second ago.

* * *

Sorry for not updating for so long! What do you think about this chapter? 


	20. Ohhh, poor thing!

'I'm bored!' Horo announced sulking as he walked into the kitchen.

'Well, deal with it!' Ren snapped, his eyes locked on the microwave that warmed his dinner.

'Ohhh, don't be like that, Ren! Let's think of something fun to do! COME ON! Pleeeeeeaaaaaase!' The Ainu pleaded, his eyes big, round, wet and glittering in his attempt to soften the Tao's cold heart.

'If you think you're going to change my mind with this…' Ren glanced at Horo with a disgusted expression before his eyes once again locked on the microwave '…You're so terribly wrong!'

'But REEEEN! Come on, buddy, look at these BIG eyes and tell me…'

'I'm not going to waste my time trying to entertain you. Moron.'

'You didn't look at my BIG eyes! Look at them!'

Ren shot a glare at the bluenette, and then a sly smile appeared on his face.

'You know, you're right…' Ren looked at Dracula who was sitting on the table few meters away from them and watching the whole scene as if it was the thousandth episode of some lame soap opera 'He _does_ look sweet. It makes me wanna _eat _'im!' the Tao barely held back a chuckle at the shaman's horrified expression 'Don't you agree, Vlad?'

'Absolutely!' chirped Dracula keen as mustard 'I'd like the legs, please.'

'Yeah. You're right. His head is too empty. It's going to leave anyone who tries to satiate his/her hunger starving.' The Tao agreed extending his hand and poking the still shocked Horo's forehead.

'Knock it off you two, don't you see you're terrifying the poor thing!' Destiny noticed, gesturing towards the bluenette. Ren smirked very pleased with himself.

'Yeah, I know, he's going to have nightmares tonight.' The Tao announced almost happily.

'God, Ren! I swear, sometimes… You're such a child!' Destiny rolled her eyes as she left the chair and slowly made her way towards him. Ren was looking at her a bit suspiciously but didn't seem to mind when she stood on her tiptoes and gave him a peck on the lips, before resting her head on his shoulder.

'I like children.' She added with a small smile as he wrapped his hand around her waist. Near them the oh-so-annoying bluenette seemed to have recovered rather quickly from his shock.

'If you're not going to eat me…' Horo started hesitantly '…Then I assume we're going to think of something fun!'

'NO!' Ren glared at the Ainu 'You were the one who chose to stay here instead to go out with the others.'

'Excuse me for not wanting to spend the whole day watching Yoh's twin groping your sister!' the Ainu murmured and a disgusted expression appeared on his face. Ren looked at him with annoyance.

'It's still your problem!' the Tao pointed out pulling out the mug with some warmed blood from inside the microwave 'Can't you think of something to occupy yourself?'

'No.' came the instant answer and the vampire rolled his eyes and muttered something that sound very much like "I should've let Vlad eat you…".

'You're mean!' Horo announced sulking and folded his arms.

'Huh! And you're stupid!'

'You're stupider!'

'Ha! You didn't deny you're stupid!'

'You didn't deny you're stupider either!'

'OK! ENOUGH ALREADY!!!' Destiny yelled, making the two finally shut up. Pleased with her success she let out a relieved sigh and smiled brightly to the world. She then turned towards Dracula and asked with her most innocent angelic voice:

'Vlaaaaad, could you, pleeeeaaaase keep Blueberry company!'

And that, people, is the way you do it when you really want something...

'Sure, my angel.' Vlad agreed immediately, smiling at her widely.

'What? NO!' Horo screamed waving his hands in front of his face madly (he even forgot he had been just called "Blueberry" again) 'Guys, you can't do this to me! Seriously! Don't leave me all alone with HIM! He's gonna eat me!'

'Sorry, Horokeu.' Destiny replied in a way that clearly showed she wasn't 'But unfortunately… Me and Ren have to take a shower… urgently.' She laced her fingers with Ren's and gave the Tao a very lustful look.

'A shower?' Horo raised an eye-brow suspiciously, his mind desperately trying to consume the new information. The couple nodded. The bluenette paused, still thinking and after that asked very slowly:

'You mean like… Together?' Ren and Destiny nodded once again. Another minute of thinking…

'So it's like a… group showering?' the Ainu once again questioned, earning a low growl from the impatiently glaring Ren and a soft chuckle from the very amused Destiny.

'Yes, it's a group showering! Are you done asking?' the Tao's frown deepened, but Horo didn't seem to notice that at all. He was too busy thinking, yet once again.

'And… If it's a group showering… Can I join you, instead of staying here with Dracula?'

The room went silent for a good ten seconds, during which the three vampires were staring with wide round eyes at the obviously retarded Ainu, that, on the other hand, didn't seem to understand what was going on. Horo was just blinking with confusion and waiting for someone to explain to him the situation.

Suddenly Dracula burst into laugh, followed by Destiny. Ren, being the shy person he is, blushed madly and slapped his forehead with his palm.

'Poor kid…' Dracula finally managed to calm himself down and wiped the tear that had appeared at the corner of his eye. The former ruler looked at Ren with a grin and shook his head. The Tao sighed, then turned towards the confused shaman, his face red from both embarrassment and frustration.

'Blueberry, do you know where babies come from?' He asked through clenched teeth. That question made the still laughing Destiny fall on the floor, laughing even harder than before and hitting the white tiles with her little fists.

Horo's eyes widened with realization (he forgot he had been calle "Blueberry" for a second time that evening).

'Oh, you mean you were going to do _that_!' he nodded with approval 'Ok, then, I'll pass the group showering just this once.'

'Oh, thank you. You're so generous.' Ren said sarcastically and helped his girlfriend up. 'But I doubt we're going to shower together _ever_.' He then examined Destiny, who was all read, tears rolling down her face from all the laughing 'Now look what you've done with her! She would've suffocated if she was alive!'

'Alright! Alright! Sorry, ok!' Horo frowned slightly 'All you had to do is to say you two wanted some privacy to do _that_ and end of the conversation.'

'Oh, yes, I'll just go announce it to the whole world right away.' Ren frowned as he finished the mug that had managed to get cold again. 'Now off you go with Vlad. Play domino or something…'

'Fiiiiine.' Horo sighed in defeat, then, looking all miserable, made his way towards the door 'Come on, Vlad, let's go play domino…'

'Finally!' Ren exclaimed, picking Destiny up and carrying her bridal-style to the giant bathroom. She was still smiling a little, her hand holding her aching from all the laughing stomach.

'I'm kind of glad Jun and the twins went out.' Destiny noted as he put her down on the bathroom floor and went to lock the door 'It would've been even noisier around here… Besides, Hao and your sister seem to… get closer.' She winked at the boy, chuckling softly.

'Whatever.' Ren murmured absently, too busy unbuttoning her blouse. 'They're probably having fun just as we are.'

* * *

I'm just not sure what's going to happen with the fight yet, so I wrote about other things. I hope it's not that bad. Review. 


	21. Chapter 21 Redone

'Ok, once more… who's Nick and who's Mick?' Yoh whispered to his brother, slightly tapping his chin with his index finger to emphasize how deep thoughts he was. Hao glanced at his brother a bit perplexed, and then simply shook his head with lenience. Some time the younger Asakura did act like he couldn't care less whether he was in grave danger or sleeping with his face flat on the table in the nearest café.

'Does it matter?' the pyro asked, his crimson weapon appearing in his hands 'Just pick one and let's get this over with already.' He paused before adding under his breath so Yoh wouldn't hear 'I don't like the guy who's fighting Jun.'

'Then… I wanna have the blue-haired dude!' Yoh's trademark smile took its place on his face as he unsheathed his sword.

'Suit yourself.' Hao sighed, glancing towards the silver-haired vampire beauty with a frown.

Garry smiled as Jun's hand turned into a shinny blade and without wasting a second he attacked her. She blocked the assault, scowling slightly as his smile turned into an absurdly wide grin. The girl pushed her opponent back and hurried to charge him, aiming at his legs. He simply jumped and while landing, tried to hit her shoulder. Jun though moved away, a bit clumsy, yeah, but she did.

'Still in bad shape, ne?' Garry noticed, slightly shaking his head as the girl hurried to take defense position.

'Possibly. But you're still going down!' she assured him, blocking one of his next attacks and jumping back.

'Possibly.' He sneered, repeating her and a soft chuckle escaped his lips as he added 'But we still don't know now, do we?'

The next thing Jun knew was that in front of her were standing three identical Garries, waving their weapons in the air in a perfect simultaneously. The middle one embraced with each arm the shoulders of the other too and grinned.

'Whole three of ME… I love my gift.' He sighed dreamily, then the three charged at Jun.

* * *

Meanwhile… 

'This is not fair!' Yoh complained as his twin brother fought Mick.

'What… isn't fair?' Hao asked, between the blows he had to block. It was quite hard, because the kid he had to deal with happened to have super-strength and super-stamina or something stupid like that and since the pyro had lost most of his power during the tournament it was a bit of trouble fighting against someone who can turn a car into a can with his bare hands.

'You've got super-vamp and what do I have?' Yoh continued whining, pointing at HIS opponent, who was sitting on the ground, few meters away and didn't stop staring without blinking EVEN ONCE at the younger Asakura.

'What… exactly…is your…point… YOH?' Hao pushed Mick away, only to be attacked almost immediately and sent flying backwards until he hit the wall of the nearest building.

'What do you mean what's my point?' Yoh exclaimed very indignantly while his brother was pulled out of the hollow his body had created by Mick and thrown in the opposite direction, landing very hard on his back. He stood up as fast as his bruised body allowed him and stared at the still complaining Yoh.

'I'm fighting for two minutes Yoh, please, be quiet and go kill your _own _vampire!' Hao yelled with annoyance. The younger Asakura sighed, still looking very unsatisfied, then turned towards Nick and started walking towards him. He was going to finish this one and then go help his brother with the cool super-vamp.

'Cry.' Nick suddenly ordered as he scanned the approaching shaman. And for Hao's horror, his brother suddenly burst into tears.

'What the HELL did you do to him?' the pyro shouted angrily, dodging Micks assault. The green-haired vampire hit the solid ground, leaving a very deep hole in it.

'This is… so sad!' Yoh fell on his knees in front of Nick, his left hand covering his eyes and his right one still squeezing the sword tightly.

'Yoh, STOP T! What do you think you're doing?' Hao tried to hit his annoying opponent, but Mick dodged and managed to punch the older Asakura into the stomach, forcing all the air out of him and sending him flying once again. The pyro hit the same wall, leaving a hollow right next to the previous one.

'Oh, fuck… That hurts…' Hao murmured as he stepped onto the solid ground. His head was throbbing, his back was burning from pain and he was sure he was going to have a terribly purple stomach after that punch. He needed few seconds to recover his breathing, though the unpleasant feeling didn't go away completely. Hao glanced at his brother with confusion. Yoh was still crying his eyes out for not particular reason. The younger Asakura tried to lift his sword, but Nick frowned and the shaman begun crying even harder, letting go of his weapon.

'Oh…' the pyro's eyes widened with realization 'This guy controls people's emotions. I bet he needs lots of concentration… Because otherwise I would've been joining my little brother in the lake-making operation.'

He had no more time to think about his sibling's problems. All he knew was that they weren't about to kill him. After all, they came to take the three with them… right?

"Left… Jump… Jump… Hit!... No, being hit… Man, that sucks!" Hao thought as he felt another punch almost land on his face. Luckily, he managed to dodge it. He had to think of something fast, or he was going to be turned into a bloody pulp.

Ok, so Mick was strong, that was painfully clear. The pyro winced. The vampire was also pretty fast and really tough. The older Asakura couldn't burn him, for some reason blood-suckers couldn't be burned easily. All Hao managed to achieve was to make his hair and eyebrows smoke…

Meanwhile Yoh was dieing from embarrassment. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop crying. He couldn't stop himself from feeling sad. He was glaring at the stupid blue-haired freak he had chosen for his opponent through the lake of tears that was pouring out of his eyes. May be he was going to run out of water for tears. His system didn't have endless amount of H2O did it? Right. It didn't. But what was the good thing about this information anyway?

Yoh reached for the sword, but his hand stopped a few centimeters away from it. His stupid hand. It wanted to go back. Like it had a mind of it's own.

"No, what are you doing? You're my hand! Do what I tell you!" Yoh thought and his rebellious limb moved an inch or so forward. "That's the spirit! Go get it boy!"

Nick glared at the shaman in front of him. The boy was still fighting the spell. Stupid kid. He didn't just expect to have a hold of his weapon so easily, did he? That was totally impossi… What the…?

'This is so sad!' Yoh noticed, the tears didn't stop coming from his eyes as he lifted the sword. He would've grinned triumphantly but all his will was focused on his right hand. The vampire in front of him just stared blankly at what his pray was doing.

'Sadly… We must say goodbye!' Yoh let out his last sob and stabbed his shocked opponent. The scream the vampire let out before turning into dust attracted Mick's attention. Hao immediately took advantage of that and without thinking stabbed his blade into the vampire's eyes. A horrible cry was heard as the blood-sucker covered his bleeding eyes with his palms. The pyro didn't make his suffer too long and hurried to stab him in the heart.

'Well done, Yoh.' Hao smiled panting 'I wouldn't done it without you… cry-baby.'

'Whatever.' The younger twin didn't seemed to mind the new nickname as long as he didn't have to experience a wild crying as this one. He wiped his puffy eyes and his lucky-go-happy smile was back in the game. 'Now let's go see how Jun's doing.'

* * *

'You're done already?' Hao asked walking towards Jun, his twin beside him. She was leaning against a tree and recovering her stregth. One ninja freak she could deal with... But three? That was more than exhausting. She slipped down the trunck until she was sitting on the ground and closed her eyes. The battle had been harder than she thought it would be and she was in worse shape than she had expected. Meaning Jun wasn't really doing very well, until, just in the middle of the fight one of the Garries did the terrible mistake to dare to grope her ass. She got VERY angry and started attcking him madly... It's amazing what you can do with little motivation... Though she still needed much time to deal with the three. 

The true was that so far she hadn't been paying much attention to her brother's warnings about how difficult it was going to be for her to revive her full power. Yes, she had trained, but... well, not too hard. It just hadn't seemed very important to her...

Jun lazily cracked open an eye and examined the Asakura twins.

'What's with your face?' the girl asked, shifting a bit against the tree to get more comfortable 'You're eyes are...puffy.'

'Ah... You mean that.' Yoh scratched the back of his head, his cheeks slightly tinted and opened his mouth to continue, but was cut off by his twin brother.

'Nick made my baby-brother cry.' Hao explained with a calm smile.

* * *

Sorry if it sucks. I'm not very good at describing fights. Besides, I had a really hard time with this one. Don't hate me. I hope it's not too OOC. And sorry for the lame ending. 


	22. I got it!

A/N: For who doesn't know, I've changed the ending of the previouse chapter.

* * *

Flashback: 

_16 years ago…_

_'Another child… Born dead.' He murmured, while rubbing his eyebrows. He could hear his wife's soft sobs from behind the door of her room. Painful, hear-breaking sound that he was not able to comprehend... He let out a sigh and made his way towards the yard, hoping to find some peace and quiet there. As he passed one of the many rooms in the domain, he heard a deep voice calling him. He stopped reluctantly, turned around and walked inside._

_'What is it, Ai?' he asked sharply. Ai was sitting on an arm-chair opposite of him, her thin lips curved into a small smile._

_'Feeling down, aren't we?' she noticed, her calm voice making him shiver 'Not having a heir… is big problem for the head of the Tao family.'_

_'Is there something you want?' En asked through gritted teeth._

_'Nothing much. Just that your position as a leader is slightly unstable.' Ai told him, her empty black eyes carefully following every move he made. She was a cunning woman, very smart, very skilled, very dangerous. She was around sixty-five years old, with lean body and grizzled hair, put in a bun._

_'I don't need you to tell me that.' En growled, crossing his arms. They stood silent for a moment, before she spoke once again:_

_'Aren't you going to do something about it?' she raised a thin eyebrow._

_'There's nothing I can do!' he snarled._

_'How can you say that!?' Ai shook her head 'Sit down.' With that she nodded towards the arm-chair opposite of her. He obeyed rather reluctantly._

_'I don't see what I can do.' En said coldly and she let out a strange sound that was most likely supposed to be a laugh._

_'En, what is it that the Tao family is trying to do for centuries?' she asked softly. En's eyes widened slightly, then growled and looked away._

_'Oh, you mean that… that __**thing**__. ' he murmured with obvious annoyance._

_'More like a legend.' She noticed with unshakable composure, though a strange spark appeared in her eyes 'No matter what you say, no matter what the other Taos say, you know perfectly well, that the boy's nothing but a legend.'_

_'You admire it?'_

_'Yes, of course I do. And it's not __**it**__, it's __**him**__.'_

_En let out an annoyed sigh._

_'Fine! Him! Happy?'_

_She nodded with approval, then sat back and crossed her legs before continuing:_

_'I heard he was a real talent when he was a shaman. His sister too. It was a great loss for the family that they were turned into vampires.' Ai shook her head slightly 'They could've been perfect for the Shaman tournament…'_

_'It doesn't matter anymore, does it?' En murmured as his frown deepened. Ai's lips curved into a small smirk._

_'You can kill two birds with one stone, you know that?' she raised a suggesting eyebrow 'Promise me more influence among the other Taos and I'll give you a male heir and help you to stabilize your position.'_

_En looked at her with growing suspicious._

_'What are you going to do?' he asked slowly, his eyes never living hers._

_'I know what his weaknesses are. That and a little spell and he's all yours.' She told him in a sing-song voice._

_'His weaknesses?' En repeated._

_'En…' Ai's smirk grew wider as she leaned forward'Do you know that vampires never break promises?'_

_'What do you mean?'_

_Ai let her odd laugh fill the room as she uncrossed her legs and added softly._

_'It's their law. They cannot break any promise!' she explained, the strange spark back in her eyes 'I'll use that… and the girls… And I'll have him where I want him without any trouble!'_

End of flashback.

'What are you two doing?' Horo asked, eyeing Hao and Ren who were sitting way too close to the TV screen, their unblinking eyes never leaving the rock band that was playing on it. The vampire had a guitar in his hands, his fingers upon the strings slightly flinching from time to time.

'Doing… an experiment.' The pyro managed to answer, still too distracted by the show to give a proper retort. Horo raised an eyebrow suspiciously, before walking to them and sitting next to Ren. Just then the Ainu realized that the vampire's eyes were dark crimson.

'What… kind of experiment?' Horo asked. Hao stood up, excitement clear on his face as he turned towards Ren.

'You ready?' the Asakura asked.

'Yeah, I think so…' Ren turned off the TV and sat on the nearest coach.

'Uh… what's going on guys?' Horo looked at the two oddly as the vampire closed his eyes tightly and reached for the strings 'Ren, can you play he guitar?'

'Nope.' The Tao answered simply, his fingers pulling experimentally on some strings. Seconds later in the room sounded the exact same song the rock band had been playing on the TV. Not a single mistaken note. Horo couldn't help it but stare with his mouth opened as Ren's fingers easily went up and down the strings, though he never opened his eyes to watch what he was doing.

'What was THAT!?' the Ainu shouted dumbfounded and excited at the same time when his friend finished playing the guitar.

'That, my precious Blueberry, was a test of Ren's memory!' Hao said proudly.

'So… You're trying to tell me that you actually remembered all the moves that man made when he played only by watching it… how many times?' Horo raised an eyebrow expectantly.

'Oh… just once.' Ren answered. The Ainu paled.

'How did you two even get the idea of testing your memory?' the bluenette continued with the questions.

'Blueberry…' Hao begun with an amused smile on his face 'With a gift like Ren's you don't know what your power's limits are. You just have to keep making experiments to learn more about it.'

Horo stood silent for a moment, his mind registering what the pyro had just said and making some conclusions.

'If he can remember how a guitarist played a song, does that mean he can also remember cool moves, like in _The Matrix_?'

Pause.

'I'll go get the movie.' Hao announced before running out of the room. Just when they were left alone, Horo noticed the fatigue expression on the vampire's face.

'Are you ok?' the Ainu asked with concern as he sat next to his friend. Ren sighed and placed the guitar on the floor next to his feet.

'Not really. Me and Hao were doing experiments and training all day long. Right now I feel like a rag…' Ren explained, his eyes half-closed and his voice softer than usual 'But what can I do… I need to find out more about my gift and remember things about it that I've forgotten… Like what I had to do to locate somebody…'

Ren closed his eyes completely and his body visibly relaxed. Horo stood still for a couple of minutes, then decided that the vampire was asleep. However, just as he was about to stand up and leave him, the Tao's eyes shot open and he sat up straight.

'Oh my god!' Ren whispered, his eyes shifting from side to side 'I got it!'

'You got what?' Horo blinked with confusion at the vampires' excited expression. A small smile appeared on Ren's lips.

'I didn't have to concentrate to find Eliot! I needed to relax!' a small laugh escaped Ren's lips as he looked at the Ainu 'I know where he is!'

* * *

Okkkkaaaay, now I really have the feeling nobody really reads this, so if I get no review for this chapter, I won't update anymore. 


	23. Where love leads you

Flashback:

_Jun opened the door as quietly as possible and peeked inside. Her eyes __intuitively turned crimson as she looked around the pitch-dark room. The black curtains made it impossible for any light to get inside._

_'Ahhh, there you are! What's taking you so long?' Jun whispered so softly, that only someone with inhumanly sensitive ear could hear it. Destiny sighed and reluctantly looked away from what she was staring at and fixing her own crimson eyes on the older Tao sibling._

_'Just a minute! It's not like we don't have an eternity!' she hissed just as quietly as the other girl did before. Jun rolled her eyes with annoyance._

_'It's not like you don't have an eternity to stare at him!' the indignant reply came. Destiny sighed, her eyes once again locking on Ren's peacefully sleeping form. He was hugging a pillow, possibly because he was not very used to the feeling of not having the girl's body next to his and when she wasn't there he was unconsciously searching for a poor replacement. _

_Destiny tilted her head to a side, not able to have enough of the cute sight he making. A small smile appeared on her face as he shifted a little bit, burying his nose deeper into the pillow._

_'Hellooooo? Shops are waiting!' Jun impatiently reminded the other girl._

_'Fine, fine, I'm coming!' Destiny snorted and made her way towards the door. She glanced at Ren one last time, before following Jun out of the house._

_The two went outside and headed straight to the shops. It was nearly sunset and the streets were quite busy though people. Jun and Destiny joined the crowd, chatting and laughing about something. For most of the people around them they looked just like two ordinary students, who wanted to spend their little free time after school together. However… not everybody was that naïve…_

_Destiny's smile suddenly vanished and she stopped dead on her tracks. A worried frown appeared on her face and her eyes carefully examined the people around her._

_'What's wrong?' Jun asked as she eyed the other girl with concern._

_'Don't you feel it…' Destiny's frown deepened._

_'Feel what?' Jun sighed and put her hands on her hips 'You know my senses aren't very good, so just tell me what it is. Is it serious?'_

_'It's not a vampire.' Destiny assured 'I think it's a…' a sudden pain shot through her head and she couldn't finish the sentence. She clutched her head and let out a soft cry, attracting many pass-bys' attention. Jun hurried to grab her arm and pull her away from the crowd and into a deserted little street nearby. Destiny leaned against the wall, her eyes tightly squeezed and her breath coming in sharp gasps.._

_'Oh my god, Destiny, what's wrong with you?' Jun shouted. Stupid question. The girl was obviously in pain._

_Unable to think of what to do, Jun begun to panic. She had no idea what was going on and therefore no solution came to her mind. The Tao wanted to take her friend back home, but every time she tried to pull Destiny always from the wall, the younger vampire let out a sharp cry and clutched her head tighter._

_'Damn… Destiny, please, try to walk…' Jun pleaded, making useless gestures. The other girl just slid down the wall until she was sitting on the ground, her knees pulled close to her chest._

_'This is bad…' Jun knelt in front of Destiny and started rubbing her friend's arm in a pitiful attempt to make her feel better._

_The Tao was so engrossed thinking of a way out of the situation that she didn't notice as someone approached her from behind._

_'Oh, friendship… It's amazing how it ties your hands, isn't it?' a voice purred, making Jun jump on her legs and turn around to face the stranger._

_'Who are you?' the silver-haired vampire asked, eyeing the woman in front of her with suspicious._

_'Tao Ai. And you must be… Jun.' a small smirk appeared on the old lady's face 'Just as I suspected… It was your friend that sensed me.'_

_'Did you do that to her?' Jun hissed through clenched teeth. Ai let out a soft chuckle as she glanced at the whimpering vampire on the ground._

_'Too bad you two have such a weak mental defense…' Ai sighed 'All I needed was for her to sense me and try to locate me and…'_

_Destiny let out a sharp cry from pain and a single tear rolled down her cheek. Jun's eyes widened as she looked with growing fear at her suffering friend._

_'You want to help her, don't you?' Ai's voice reached the silver-haired girl's ears 'You don't want her to suffer, right?'_

_'Yes…' Jun replied softly as she once more knelt down in front of her friend and wiped away the new tears that made their way down Destiny's cheeks._

_'Very well then. Promise me you won't struggle and will do what I tell you and I'll stop…'_

_There was silence for awhile, before Jun finally spoke._

_'I promise.'_

* * *

_Ren woke up with a start. He knew something was wrong. He just knew it. Jun and Destiny… he was more than sure that something… something __**bad**__ had happened to them._

_Ren jumped out of the bed and hurried to get dressed. No more than a minute or two later he stormed out of the house and found himself on a busy street. He scowled as he felt a unknown power nearby. He slowly made his way through the crowd and towards a small deserted street. No, It wasn't there. It had been, but it had left… not long ago._

_Ren continued without hesitation to follow his senses. It wasn't a short walk and it led him as far away from the busy streets as possible – on some old big yard in front of a deserted half-ruined house…_

_There stood a woman. Slim, calm woman that eyed him without showing any signs of fear or worry. Ren narrowed his eyes._

_'You came.' She simply said._

_'Yes.' Within a second Ai found herself slammed against the wall of the old building, a hand tightly clenching her throat, almost cutting of her air-supply 'And you are going to tell me where they are.'_

_Ai bravely glared back at the vampire. His crimson eyes glowed really terrifying in the night, but she was not afraid. She was the one who truly controlled the situation, and behind the scary face, Ren knew that perfectly well._

_Though she could barely breath, Ai managed to let out a low chuckle._

_'You can't read my thoughts, can you?' she purred, making him growl and bare his fangs at her._

_'Talk, old woman!' he demanded._

_'Ahh, let's not talk about ages, shall we?' she smirked 'Only I know where the girls are. If I don't go there during the next hour or so, my servants will kill them. Oh! And before you say anything, I made sure they can be killed…'_

_'What the hell are you talking about?'_

_'Ren, you have no idea what you're dealing with!' Ai hissed 'Your magic may be stronger than mine, but I know your weaknesses. You cannot win against me. So do what I say and nobody will die. Now let go of me!'_

_Ren snarled one last time then reluctantly obeyed and took a step back._

_'Better.' Ai said as she watched his eyes turn back to their normal golden color. She scanned him with overt interest as she stood up, rubbing her aching throat._

_'So it's true…' Ai murmured with a small smile 'All of it. The blood-red lock, the golden eyes… amazing…'_

_'Stop being amazed and tell me what you want!' Ren snapped._

_'And the temper too…' Ai added, snickering a bit 'Ok, vampire, we make a deal. You do what I tell you and the girls stay alive.'_

_Ren looked away, his brain trying to think of a way out of the situation. He couldn't kill her - that was for sure. And he couldn't sense the girls no matter how hard he tried. She had done something to them… But what? A spell? How come she had made sure they can die? Then again… she was a witch. A strong one, that is, he could feel her power. He could not risk anything with a person like her…_

_Ren sighed. He had no choice. He just had to agree with her condtions._

_'Fine.' Ren murmured._

_'Do you swear, Tao Ren?'_

_Ren stood silent for a moment, his eyes slightly widened. She knew. She knew about the vampire law. She knew he could not break a promise… And she was about to use it against him. If he said he did swear, that meant she could do with him whatever she liked. Therefore, the Tao clan could do with him whatever they liked…_

_… But then again, he didn't have a choice, did he?_

_'I can't hear you…' Ai sang, a very irritating smirk on her face as she crossed her arms and looked at him expectantly. Ren's shoulders dropped and he let out a soft sigh._

_'Yes… I swear.' His reply was a whisper, but Ai heard it anyway. She smirked and shook her head._

_'Good boy. Next time you'll know… What friendship and love can lead you to.' She told him 'Now let's go. We don't have much time.'_

_Ren resisted the urge to snap her neck as she walked pass him. He turned around to follow her, when he felt a very familiar energy._

_'Wait a sec, granny. You're not taking the boy anywhere!' Eliot announced, appearing from the opposite direction with his bunch of minions next to him. He smirked and nodded at Ren, who was quite surprised he hadn't felt his presence before… _

_'Don't get distracted that easily, Ren. Be more careful. It may cost you your life some day.' Eliot advised him, as if knowing what the younger vampire thought 'Now let's take care of the granny.'_

End of flashback.

* * *

Ok... how was that? Pleeeeese, leave a review, ok? 


	24. A fight and a kiss

Hao smirked as he saw the object of his affection sitting on a bench in the garden and staring with a dreamily smile at something far away from the horizon. She was so engrossed with her thoughts that she didn't notice him come closer. He walked quietly on his tiptoes until he was close enough to his target and placed his palms on her eyes.

'Uh…' Jun blinked a couple of times with confusion at the sudden lack of light, before hearing a familiar chuckle behind her and realizing what was going on. She let out an annoyed sigh and tried to removes his palms from her eyes, in the end failing miserably.

'Hao, I know it's you. You can let go now.' She pointed out, folding her arms.

'You got me, pretty girl!' the pyro chirped, then released her eyes and jumped over the back of the bench to land precisely beside the vampire.

'What's up, Jun?' he asked, a wide smile appearing on his lips 'How about we go somewhere today?'

Jun sighed.

'I can't date you, Hao.' She said looking at the shaman with a firm expression on her face. Hao blinked a few times and raised an eyebrow.

'Why not?' he asked as he sat back, without ever breaking the eye-contact. She rolled her eyes in an It's-obvious-you-stupid-match manner.

'I'm a vampire. You know… Immortal blood-sucker and all. And you…are an ex-human destroyer… AND Destiny's ex-boyfriend.' she explained with a hint of annoyance in her voice. Hao just stared at her.

'And?' he asked with expectation. Jun raised an eyebrow.

'What do you mean "and"?' she snapped.

'Well, those reasons are not very good.' He admitted as a matter-of-fact, then stretched his arms and crossed his legs. She let out an indignant snort.

'I don't understand you!' she growled, throwing her hands in the air.

'You don't have to.' He smirked 'It's simple: I like you, you like me and we go on a date. OK?'

'NO!' Jun abruptly stood up, glaring down at the stubborn shaman 'Not OK! So NOT OK! I can't date you! So find somebody else to bother!'

'I really don't get what's holding you back. It's not like I'm younger that you so what's the problem?'

Jun growled and turned around, ready to walk away, but Hao quickly stood up and wrapped tightly his arms around her waist from behind.

'Let me go!' Jun demanded. She wasn't making any attempts to pull away, she just stood there, pouting and waiting for him to obey.

'No.' He firmly answered, resting his chin on her shoulder 'I want a date with you.'

'It doesn't matter what you want, I said no!' she snapped, shifting a bit as she felt his breath tickling her neck in a way that was way too pleasant to be alright.

'But you want to, don't you…'

'You're crossing the line, Hao!' she warned, though her voice sounded less certain. He smirked, feeling her hesitation, removed his chin from her shoulder and spun her around.

'Oh, no… Not yet.' He then leaned forward, capturing Jun's lips in a kiss.

Flashback:

_'What the Hell are you doing here?' Ren growled, glaring at Eliot. The latter raised an eyebrow and let out a soft chuckle._

_'Saving your skin, boy.' He chirped 'I don't have any interest in you becoming a pile of dust or being turned into the Tao clan's loyal puppet, so step back from the granny and we'll take care of everything.'_

_Ren stood there dumbfounded. He had no idea what to do. He had no idea on which side he was._

_**Problematic, isn't it? The choice…**__ he heard a familiar voice in his head and he felt his body stiffen. _

_'Go away!' Ren murmured, though he knew perfectly well that it wasn't going to be that easy._

_**Stop pretending. Let me go. I'll kill them all!**_

_'No!'_

_**Yes! And you know you want it, don't you? To feel it… to taste it… you do remember… The first time I… no, WE killed…**_

_'It was an accident, it wasn't supposed to happen! I knew nothing about my powers back then!'_

_**Right… Keep telling yourself that. You know how it happened. You needed blood, you needed to eat, the hunger wasn't bearable… and you let me out. Do you recall… the taste of the girl's warm blood… Nothing like the crap you eat now!**_

_'Stop it!'_

_**You can't hold back forever. After all… Demon or not, I'm part of you and you know it…**_

_'REN! ' Ai suddenly shouted as Ian and Simon approached her. Ren growled and his eyes turned crimson._

_'What the…' Eliot blinked as his minions found themselves on the ground, about ten meters away from the old woman. Ren was standing in front of Ai, his fangs bared at the others and his red eyes following each move the vampires made._

_'Great, he's going to protect her.' Leon murmured, folding his arms and glancing at his leader 'What are we going to do now?'_

_Eliot sighed wearily._

_'I guess this won't be as easy as I thought. You step back, I'm taking from here.' Eliot murmured as his eyes turned the color of blood and a crimson staff appeared in his hand._

_'I need some time. Hold him back.' Ai whispered in Ren's ear. He nodded, his eyes locked on Eliot. He knew perfectly well what was about to happen... _

_'Ok, here we go, boy!' Eliot shouted, then suddenly disappeared and reappeared right above the younger vampire's head with the staff raised and ready for attack. Ren's speed helped him to dodge the assault without too much difficulty, but the crater that Eliot managed to create was big enough for a truck to park in it. The Tao frowned at the smirking red-head and a black sword appeared in his hand, the hilt wrapped in black flames._

_'Bring it on, Renny!' Eliot jumped out of the crater, wielding the staff in his hands. When the two weapons made a contact the effect was like an atomic explosion – a powerful wave of air blew in all four directions causing Ai and the other vampires to make a short fly backwards until they fell hard on their backs or hit the nearest tree or wall._

_The fight between the two vampires was a unique scene. They were moving with such speed that it was hard to see what exactly was happening. There were black and crimson sparks when the weapons made a contact and when they used their magic to defend themselves the energy, flowing in the air was almost touchable._

_Ai couldn't help it but watch for a few second the battle. It was something she was sure she wasn't going to see anymore. However, she quickly remembered what she had to do. She sat on the ground, her back against the wall of the house, closed her eyes and begun chanting softly._

_Eliot pushed Ren away and in the short spare second he had, he looked at the car behind the black-haired shaman and using his power, lifted it in he open air. The Tao turned around just in time to build a shield of dark energy in front of his body and protect himself from the machine that was moving towards him. Meanwhile Eliot attacked him from behind. Luckily Ren had expected that and dodged the assault, though slower than usual. The red-head smirked, seeing the sudden slow-down of his opponent and made a series of fast charges. The younger vampire managed to block most of them, but the last one sent him flying backwards and hit a tree. Ren groaned and looked down at his bleeding shoulder. The wound wasn't that big, but he knew that this was only the beginning. If he continued fighting Eliot sooner or later more were going to appear._

_Ren jumped on his legs just in time to dodge an attack that blew off the whole tree in less than a second. A few dozens of knives suddenly found him as a perfect aim and he had to build yet another shield of dark energy to protect himself. Then he was once more facing Eliot's weapon…_

_Ai finished chanting and slowly opened her eyes. They were all white and glowing, the lack of irises making here look almost as an unloving being._

_'Ren…' she called, standing up 'Move!'_

_The two vampires stopped fighting to look at the old woman. Eliot raised and eyebrow._

_'What do you think you're doing?' he asked, an amused smile appearing on his lips._

_'Getting away from you.' She simply answered 'Do not seek your Ren anymore. I promise you, soon enough he won't be of any use to you.'_

_'What the Hell are you talking about?' Eliot asked, frowning. She just smiled slyly._

End of Flashback.

* * *

Ok, that wasn't my best chapter, but HEY! I did update, right? 


	25. End of the flashbacks

Flashback:

_The Tao mansion, the next day:_

_'Maybe we should just kill it…' En hesitantly suggested._

_'Him.' Ai corrected and rolled her eyes 'And you won't kill him. You have better things to do with him. Besides, I went through too much to get him here. I had to curse a bunch of vampires AND teleport with Ren!__Do you know how exhausting that is?'_

_En let out a low growl and folded his arms._

_'I'm telling you, this boy will be a big trouble!' the man said, the frown on his face deepening 'He has tasted freedom and power which means he won't be very eager to obey to anyone. You do realize that he does something wrong, the whole clan will blame ME, don't you?!'_

_Ai walked to him and stuck her index finger into his chest, her face and inch or two away from his._

_'Listen to me, Tao En and listen well, you want an heir, don't you? A boy that will fight in the shaman tournament? Well, guess what, you're running out of time. This lad, Ren, he is your only option! He'll survive all your cruel training AND he has talent that none of the other boys from our family has.'_

_'So? Talent isn't everything! How am I going to make him compete!'_

_Ai pulled back, smirking a little, then nodded to one of the guards that stood near the door. He bowed and disappeared somewhere. A minute or so he returned, dragging a young girl with her hands tied on her and her mouth gagged with a piece of cloth._

_'See this?' Ai said, grabbing the girl's long light brown hair and pushing her towards En._

_'This is just some human girl, how is she going to help us?' the man snapped. Ai snickered a bit and released the girl's hair._

_'Meet the so-called Destiny.' The old woman smirked and folded her arms as she saw En's confused expression. The man blinked a couple of times, then frowned and bent a little to the captive's eye-level and pulled the cloth, so she could speak. Immediately after that Destiny's cursing filled the room._

_'… And for crying out loud, WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO TO ME! WHY AM I STUCK IN MY PREVIOUS HUMAN BODY!? WHAT DO YOU WANT WITH ME? WHERE IS REN? WHERE'S JUN?' Destiny yelled trying free herself from the ropes._

_En just stood there, staring at the girl dumbfounded as Ai smiled triumphantly at him from behind the captive's back._

_'I told you I can turn them into human again.' The old woman cheered 'Well, of course not completely. There're a few side effects like… um… they'll age about eight times slower and possibly will be much harder to kill. But anyway, those are only pluses. And this girl… This girl's Ren's love, if I'm correct.'_

_'YOU'RE CORRCET AND HE'LL FUCKING KILL YOU WHEN HE FINDS OUT!' Destiny yelled, which made En once more gag her for the sake of his ears._

_'Fine, so what are you suggesting?' the man asked, raising an eyebrow._

_'Simple. I'll turn him into human as well and I'll take the girl with me. He can't do anything to stop me, he has to obey every each one of my commands. We'll tell him that if he wants to see her again, he'll have to win the Shaman tournament and voila!' she winked to him 'You'll be surprised what a motivation like this can do.'_

_'Hm…' En looked thoughtfully at Ai, chucked his chin and after a moment or so nodded '__You know… this might actually work…' he glanced at the captive 'You can train Destiny… and I'll take the siblings and turn them into shaman warriors… However, we should be very careful. Nobody aside from the family should know about this. The Shaman counsel might not take it very well… Having a half vampire enter the tournament…'_

_'Of course. We'll make sure nobody finds out.' The woman agreed 'It would be the Tao clan's secret.'_

End of flashback.

'So… that's pretty much all.' Ren said, scratching the back of his neck 'They let me see Destiny one more time, before Ai took her away. We had only a couple of minutes, so I gave her one of the pendants. You see, those pendants weren't ordinary. The pendant Destiny had, could locate mine and that way, if she had the chance to escape, she could find me. We both knew that I would most probably be under much more pressure and therefore, the hope was in her.' Ren sat back in his chair with a sigh 'Of course that plan happened to be not that good after all. I mean, the tournament ended and if I had the pendant I would've found her long ago. But since everybody from the clan hate me, no one told me where she is, even though I was the new leader. They just kept saying they didn't know anything. Meanwhile Destiny studied magic with Ai and somehow managed to get close to the granny. The secret of how to break the spell was revealed and… yeah, you know the rest.'

Horo just stood there not knowing what to say. Ren didn't need anyone to say anything, he preferred snuggling Destiny and she preferred sitting in his lap and nibbling his earlobe.

'Oh.' The Ainu finally managed to let out 'So, no more memories, I guess…'

Ren shrugged.

'Well, do you need more?'

Horo blinked a couple of times.

'Yeah, it was fun.' He explained and was about to add something, when he suddenly noticed something disturbing. His eyes went big and he found himself unable to move. Ren pulled away a little from Destiny to try see what the Ainu was looking at and when he did a small smile appeared on his lips.

Through the opened door you could see Jun and Hao making out in the hall. They were most probably trying to get to some of their rooms, but their impatiens and hunger for each other was taking over, so they just kissed all the way to their aim. Which happened to be lots of time, considering they moved very, very slowly.

'Hey, they finally did it!' Destiny giggled, her eyes also locked on the couple 'I was already starting to get worried.'

'Yeah, me too.' Ren agreed as his sister and the pyro disappeared from their sight.

'You mean you knew?' Horo exclaimed.

'Of course, there were sparks, didn't you notice?' Ren asked, raising an eyebrow mockingly. 'I was just hoping they would get together before we leave to find Eliot, which happens to be tomorrow, so… I'm really glad.'

The Ainu chose not to answer, than stood up and headed to the garden.

Ren couldn't hold back a laugh as his friend closed the door behind him, leaving them alone in the room with plenty of funny ideas of what to do.

'So…' the lad begun, a sly smile appearing on his face 'How about we have a little fun while there're no Blueberries around, curious to find out stuff about our past?'

Destiny giggled.

'Sounds great…'

A second later they found themselves on the floor, groping, making out and searching for the fastest way to get rid of the clothes. A very usual situation for them. It was something that had always surprised Jun – their endless desire for each other…

* * *

Ok, so lame final, I KNOW! Sorry. And the chapter was short There will be more action in the next chapters, cuz guess what? This story's coming to an end. There will be... let's see about three or four chapters left. And no more flashbacks. Just fights. Please, review, ok? I don't understand why people read and don't want to just press the little button on the left and write a sentance or two. It's not THAT hard! Besides, I noticed that this is one of my less read stories, so I'm surprised I'm still updating it... Oh, well. There's not much left, so... yeah, it's no biggy. I'll update as soon as I can. I have two more stories that need updating... 


	26. A visit

'Wake up, Renny…' a soft voice cooed above his sleeping form and a slim silhouette, quiet and creepy as a shadow, bend over the bed, a loosen inky lock hanging near the young vampire's pale face.

'Having nightmares, aren't we…' Eliot's eyes shone in the darkness as he let out a soft chuckle and stared into the tightly squeezed eyes and the stressed expression on the Tao's face 'I assume it's because of me… Alright, I guess I can let you wake up now. I did my work, no need of the sleep-prolonging spell… I can't believe it you haven't learned to do that yet…' Eliot let out an almost imperceptible sigh, then raised his hand up and his fingers glowed in crimson. The next second Ren's eyes shot open and he sat up as fast as he could, his widened golden eyes locked on his visitor.

For a second or two they just stared at each other, Eliot smiling slyly and the Tao looking at his enemy with a unparalled shock written all over his face.

'WHAT THE HELL!' Ren jumped out of the bed, his eyes crimson. He glanced at Destiny, who was peacefully sleeping in the bed, the concentrated amount of energy in the air, somehow staying unnoticed for her senses.

'She won't wake up… I cast a spell on everybody in the house…' Eliot announced, calmly standing up and putting his hands in his pockets 'I needed to have a little chat with you. Peacefully.'

The red color of Ren's eyes slowly faded to a brilliant golden one and he folded his arms in front of his bare chest.

'You wanted to…talk…' the Tao repeated slowly, eyeing Eliot with suspicion.

'You got that right.' Eliot thoughtfully ran a hand through his spiky hair, before continuing 'You know where to find me now, so I decided to make a move before you and the whole gang had started heading towards my place…'

'What move?' Ren snapped, his frown deepening. Eliot let out an odd low snicker and gazed out of the window. For a couple of seconds a heavy silence filled the room. Then the red-head finally spoke, making his interlocutor's whole body freeze.

'Those human friends of yours. I took one of them… The Ainu, I think…'

'You did WHAT!?' Ren shouted, his eyes widening with shock and apprehension 'W-wait a sec… You-you… How did you get inside in the first place? You have no invitation! No permission… You… just… how?'

'Well, it was pretty easy… ' Eliot admitted rather absently 'Your friend accidentally let me in. It was exactly what I was hoping for. A naive human, that isn't used to control his emotions and therefore actions...' he smiled slyly at the terrified Tao 'You wanna know what actually happened? Alright... I'll tell ya... let's see… I think it pretty much happened that way…'

Flashback:

_Horo sleepily went to the kitchen to get a glass of water. Not bothering to turn on the lights, he started searching half-gropingly for a glass and the sink. After a minute or so he succeeded in his mission and placed the now empty glass near the sink. The Ainu yawned, stretched lazily, scratching the back of his head and was just about to turn around and walk back to his bedroom, when he heard a soft snicker outside of the ajared window. He blinked a couple of times, trying to clear his blurry vision, then finally noticed a dark silhouette sitting on a branch on the tree that was growing near the window._

_'Horo-Horo, isn't it?' Eliot purred, letting a wide smirk grace his features 'Also known as… Blueberry?'_

_'Don't call me that!' Horo snapped, frowning. The vampire chuckled._

_'I don't know much about you.' Eliot said, standing up on the branch and leaning against the tree's trunk 'Except that you're neither very smart, nor very strong and yet you hang out with Ren and the Asakura twins…'_

_'I'm smart enough AND strong enough to beat you, you moron!' Horo yelled, almost hearing the blood in his veins boiling from anger._

_'Right…And I am Santa Clause.'_

_'Well, you might be! You don't know what a crazy freak like you can think of!'_

_'Good one, Blueberry! You must be really proud of yourself of thinking of a SMART answer like that one! Go boast around, tell everybody, they'll be shocked!'_

_'SHUT UP!__'_

_'Oh, another smart answer. That must be a record. Two in one day.'_

_'THAT'S IT!' Horo shouted, shaking with anger 'IF YOU THINK YOU CAN HADLE ME, COME AND GET ME, YOU FREAK!'_

_Eliot let out a soft chuckle and his eyes turned crimson._

_'Thanks for the invitation!' he smiled. Horo suddenly froze, all the blood leaving his face._

_'Wha- NO! No, you're not invited! Stay out of the house!' the shaman shouted, desperation clear in his voice as he took a step back from the window. Eliot chuckled once again._

_'Too late.' He simply announced, his voice sounding like a low purr._

End of flashback.

'You tricked him!' Ren shouted rather indignantly. Eliot simply shrugged in return.

'Well, it's not my fault the boy's so stupid.' the red-head pointed out with an annoying carefree tone.

'Horo's NOT stupid! He just doesn't know well enough the rules of our kind!'

'You're defending him?' Eliot raised an eyebrow 'You're always the one who seems to be insulting the poor Ainu. You know, calling his an idiot and stuff…'

'He knows I don't mean it.' Ren said, his voice sounding somehow defensive.

'Oh, does he now? How do you know?' Eliot chuckled, walking towards the Tao 'You seem… upset, Ren. What's the matter? Are you feeling guilty for bringing the kid with you?'

'Shut up!' The younger vampire snapped, his eyes intuitively looking down 'Just… tell me what you want…'

Suddenly Eliot was right behind the other vampire. Ren winced when a cold hand landed on his bare shoulder, but didn't move away.

'Oh, yes, you _are_ upset…' Eliot purred, his eyes locked on the spot where the younger vampire's neck and shoulder connected. He licked his lips, imagining the taste of Ren's blood, wishing of the power it held…

'You want my gift, don't you?' Ren asked softly.

'Yes…' Eliot agreed, his eyes flashing red for a moment 'But not like this… It's not… satisfying… I want to win it in a fight. So…'

'So?'

'So here's the deal… Tomorrow you'll come alone to my place. Your friends stay here. I'll send my minions to entertain them. It will be the final battle…' Eliot paused, then added softly 'The winner takes all.'

Ren sighed, then nodded slowly.

'Don't hurt him.' The Tao said, earning a rather loud snicker from the red-head.

'Sure, sure. I won't do anything to him.' Eliot grinned and walked to the window 'It's not him that I'm interested in. He has nothing to give me… I'm after a demon, not an ordinary boy...'

Ren clenched his jaw and let out a low growl.

'A demon, Ren.' Eliot mercilessly repeated, enjoying the reaction his words caused on the younger vampire 'Because, no matter how much you deny it, that's who you are. That's who you'll always be.'

And he disappeared. Ren sighed wearily, his shoulders drooping and slowly walked to the bed.

'Ren?' a sleepy voice asked as he got under the cover. Destiny turned around, so she was facing him and half-opened her eyes.

'You look sad…' she murmured, reaching for his hand. He sighed, wrapping a hand around her waist and pulling her closer.

'I'll tell you what happened in the morning. Now sleep well. You'll need as much energy as possible tomorrow.' He whispered, kissing her forehead. Destiny nodded lazily, before drifting back to sleep.

* * *

I haven't updated for quite some time, but I have my reasons. I know it might sound banal, but I really was busy these days. My mom's fault, blame her! 


	27. Chapter 27

'Ren, please…' Destiny pleaded, grabbing his arm to stop him from walking out of the front door 'Don't go all by yourself! Stay here, we'll think of something…'

'There's no time!' he said turning around to face her 'Besides… I'll have to meet Eliot face in face sooner or later…'

'But you're going to be alone…'

'Don't worry about me, I'll be fine. Think about you… Eliot will send his minions here to fight you guys and I don't think this will be an easy fight at all…' he sighed, staring into her gorgeous blue orbs, then suddenly pulled her into a hug 'Please, Destiny…' he whispered, his arms tightening around her in a way that clearly showed how afraid he was of letting go 'Be careful… God, be careful…'

'I will.' She promised pulling a little to give him a soft kiss on the lips. After a couple of seconds they broke the kiss but didn't let go of one another, just stood there, enjoying the peaceful moment of the embrace. Then Ren sighed, leaned forward and whispered into her ear the three magic words, before kissing her forehead and disappearing out of the front door, leaving her stunned, worried and at the same time… happy. For six hundred years he had never, ever told her he loved her. He had showed it to her in many ways, but never said it… Never…

Yet he suddenly did that now. What did that mean?

Destiny suddenly paled and leaned against the door-frame for support… Was it possible that he had said that because he had thought he was seeing her for a last time?

* * *

Ren got in Destiny's half-broken car as fast as he could and after closing the door, leaned his forehead against the wheel.

'God…' he murmured, squeezing his eyes shut 'I should've told her that, centuries ago…'

He let out an almost imperceptible sigh, then started the engine.

* * *

In the house, Destiny's eyes traced the car as it disappeared from her sight, then turned around and walked inside. She was the only one that was up at the moment. Everybody else was sleeping. She had woken up very early as Ren, in his attempt to stay unnoticed, got out of the bed to dress up and head to find Eliot. Now it was her duty to explain the situation to the rest of the gang… And they had to think of a good plan.

First of all they had to get away from the city. Go to the suburbs maybe… Find some place with less people and buildings around… This was going to be a big fight. That would cause much destruction. They could NOT risk the lives of innocent people. And besides… if they stayed here, they were going to sweep away Vlad's house. And that wasn't the best way to repay for his hospitality…

Destiny walked into the living-room and sat on the sofa. She knew well enough who of Eliot's subordinates were left… And as far as she knew, their gifts were pretty powerful. She remembered fighting Melanie once… Oh, she had barely gotten alive out of that fight… That bitch was downright crazy and sadistic! Destiny still remembered those big empty pale blue eyes and that laugh… one hell of a laugh that could freeze your blood. Melanie was extremely creepy even for a vampire…

Destiny shuddered, slumping into the sofa. Back then Ren had saved her from certain death and it was still perfectly clear for her that if Melanie didn't like toying with her 'food' so damn much, Destiny would've been a pale of dust long before the Tao had appeared.

'Hey, Destiny!' Someone cheered while entering the room. The girl jumped a little, then her eyes locked on a sleepy looking Yoh. He yawned and stretched his arms while lazily making his way towards her.

'You're up?' she noticed, raising an eyebrow. He shrugged.

'Yeah… I heard some noise so decided to see what's going on. Also, I managed to accidentally wake up the two love-birds so they'll be coming downstairs after…' Yoh cleared his throat, not bothering to hide his wide grin 'So, yeah. Only Horo isn't up yet.'

Destiny stared at him for a moment, then let out a small sigh and ran a hand through her hair. At least she was going to explain everybody the situation…

* * *

Meanwhile Ren was driving towards Eliot's place, his serious gaze locked on the road. He had no idea what he was going to do. He had no idea whether he was ready to fight his creator. All he knew was that he had to win if he wanted to save his friend.

Ren frowned, thinking of what he was about to do when he reached his aim. His calculations told him he was going to be there some time after sunset and he suspected that around that time Eliot's minions would be fighting Destiny, Jun and the twins. The Tao, himself, didn't like leaving them all alone. With every passed mile, he felt the urge to turn back the car. One half of his mind was screaming that he was insane to leave the girl he loved, his sister and the Asakuras by themselves against Eliot's warriors but the other one was screaming the same thing about Horo.

No matter how much he had thought about it, no matter how many times he told himself that he simply needed to go and fight with Eliot and to get it over with, it was still bothering him. The mere thought of the red-head gaining his gift was horrifying. The Tao knew well enough that everybody with lots of power wanted only one thing – more power. Eliot was like that. And Ren's worst fear was that deep inside he was like that too. After all, the two of them were so alike. He had been born because of Eliot. In some way, they were like a father and a son…

Ren sighed as a small, rather sad smile appeared on his lips. It seemed like, not matter what he did, he always managed to get exactly the worst possible family…

Around sunset he had to stop his car near the road and continue on foot through a rather thick forest. It was just like Eliot to decide to build a camp or house or whatever he had build in a place like this. Creepy and humid and inhibited by snakes. Just perfect.

It took Ren some time until he finally reached a huge and rather strangely tree-less and bush-less area. It could be a… let's say a really big glade. Although it looked somehow unnatural, as if it was made by something or someone. At the of it there was some sort of a two-stored house. It had black walls and no windows at all. Ren had no idea how the people inside got light or electricity or whatever… but then again – for Eliot stuff like these were a piece of cake.

Ren made a couple of uncertain steps through the short grass, his alerted eyes scanning the area. Then again, he didn't need his eyes that much. He had his sharp senses to help him. And he knew, without doubt that Eliot was nearby. And the two of them were the only vampires in the district.

The door of the creepy black house opened and a tall slim figure slowly stepped out. Eliot stretched his arms in a lazy rather sleepy manner, then ran his right hand through his crimson locks and waved Ren with his left one. The younger vampire sighed and started to make his way towards his creator. Eliot did the same but much more calmly, while a creepy smirk formed on his lips.

'Soooo…' The Bloody one begun, looking at his opponent up and down 'IS lil Renny ready for a fight?'

The Tao's frown deepened and he let out a low snarl.

'Less talking, more action.' He insisted, his eyes turning crimson.

Eliot chuckled as a red staff appeared in his right hand and he wield it around in a carefree manner.

'What? You want to go help your girlfriend as soon as possible?' he taunted, the annoying smirk only growing bigger 'Sorry, kid, but this fight won't be a short one… Poor Destiny. You should've married her or something when you had a chance. Now it's too late. Cuz, believe me, you're not getting back alive.'

The edges of Ren's mouth quivered a bit in something that with much effort could be considered a smile.

'I'm already dead.' He softly replied and in what seemed to be an instant appeared right in front of his enemy, their weapons – a black sword and a crimson staff – crossed.

* * *

In the meanwhile, Destiny, Jun and the Asakuras were facing another problem. Far away from Dracula's home, in a deserted place near the suburbs, they found themselves against a very odd looking vampire trio.

* * *

Sorry for not updating in such a long time. (yet again...) But I was in Turkey for some time and before that I was busy. So... yeah. Next chapter will be pure fighting scences... I think. 


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